J's Cafe Nette

Time Magazine has taken this opportunity to grace us with their choices for the 100 Most Influential People in the World.

If there ever was a question in my mind that my decision was correct years ago to discontinue my subscription to this publication, it was wiped away by their omission of President Bush from this list. Have we come to the point where the media blinded by their hatred for this man, simply wishes to demean the Office of the Presidency? It matters not the man or woman who occupies the Oval Office, the day Americans do not find them persuasive on the world stage, I believe we are headed for disaster.

Some might say this is laughable, I do not agree. When Osama bin Laden is more influential in the world than our Commander in Chief in the opinion of this publication, I see no reason to smile. Others would say this list has no actual meaning, again I respectfully do not concur. Time is distributed worldwide and I am certain has influence in regions which we cannot imagine. Are they to believe that the President of the United States of America has little or no influence in the world? According to Time, the answer is Yes.

Call me old fashioned if you like, but I would prefer to return to the days when even with our disagreements we were able to unite as a country behind our duly elected President. Given the difficult times we face ahead as a nation one would like to believe we could achieve that plateau once more. The press recognizing that there are two political parties in this country and they do not consist of “perfect” and “imperfect” might be a great start.

Update: Captain Ed says:

Let’s see if we can make sense of this. Two Senators who want to win a nomination for the next presidential election are more influential than the man who currently holds the position? I’m not saying that Hillary and Obama do not have influence — after all, they are the frontrunners for the Democrats. However, arguing that they have more influence than George Bush is simply unrealistic, and it betrays the bias of Time in its attempt to sell their list. Bush just demonstrated that he has equal influence as the entirety of Congress in vetoing the supplemental bill.

Love him, hate him, or feel indifferent, but one cannot deny that the President of the United States has a great deal of influence. This one in particular has toppled two brutal dictatorships and currently runs a controversial war in Iraq. He has worked with four other nations to isolate North Korea and pushed the UN Security Council to isolate Iran. Bush has, for better or worse, negotiated free-trade agreements with most of the rest of the world during his six years in office, and has even begun to attract nations like Canada to his policy on greenhouse gases.

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