by Japa
****
(by Pete Souza)
The Timex Man
This is really an expansion of a comment I made earlier. And it is representative of how I view the year 2014 and what truly will make it, in years to come, perhaps the most memorable year of President Obama’s two terms.
I had originally told Chips that I was going to come up with a memorable moment for each month. Then I was trying to look for a memorable moment for each day. The fact is, there were not many days that did not provide its own memorable moment and some days had more than one.
So then I tried to look at the entire year to see what all those possible memorable moments had in common and what the overall theme of this year was. And quite simply, as I was doing my considering I realized what our President reminded of…the old Timex commercials.
Basically, the commercials would show a Timex watch being subjected to all kinds of abuse, then there would be a close-up showing the watch still working. The tag line was “Timex, it takes a licking but keeps on ticking.”
And that is what this year has been like for the President. It started with all the abuse he was subjected to concerning Obamacare. Some of it was hangover from the initial website problems, but it kept building because of what supposed to be a failure of sufficient enrollment. Of course, President Obama kept his cool when all others were starting to panic (except those of us who knew better). He kept on ticking.
It continued on and on. Putin invaded Crimea and all we were subjected to, from the media and the right and the left, were how strong and leaderlike Putin was and how the President had obviously been outplayed by a master. Again, we knew better, even when the rest of the country was, in their hearts, laughing at him. But he kept on ticking.
Then came the ISIS crisis. Again, we were told he was too late and too little. Some of us knew better and he kept on ticking.
Then came election season. He was excoriated by the right, with all the GOP candidates trying to make the election about the evil socialist in the White House. And of course all the Dem candidates (though not all) trying to keep an arm’s distance, and sometimes even more, from him. But he kept on ticking.
Then came all the post election analysis and how the voters rejected his policies and how the right crowed and how the left complained that he hadn’t done enough or he had hurt them by doing too much. And the media declared his next two years to be the lamest of all lame ducks. But he kept on ticking, and ticking and ticking.
Sue Duvall Smith calls him the energizer President. He is so much more, though that is definitely a side to him. He is beyond the “Keep Calm and Carry On” slogan. He is something truly special and quite possibly, more than any other year, 2014 is emblematic of just what he is and what he means to the country and specially to us at TOD.
Yes, there have been many memorable moments in 2014 and I have truly enjoyed reliving them with my fellow TODvillians. Just like there have many other instances than those I have listed above.
But to me, looking back from some point in the future, I think I will consider 2014 as the memorable year of his Presidency. He has taken a licking but he keeps on ticking.
He is The Timex Man.
