Column: Obama needs to do what is right, not popular

One of my favorite quotes from JFK is “Always do what is right, regardless of whether it is popular.”

As a Republican extremist, or whatever you wish to label my political affiliation, I figured it would be appropriate to find some valuable lessons from the other side.

I extend to all upcoming graduates a sincere good luck on the job search. Graduating from college is a very big event and a very big transition in life.

For a lot of people this summer, it will be a case of moving back with the parents until you get a job.

In this tough economic time, this is an all too common experience and hopefully it will be for a shorter amount of time rather than longer.

However, for some of these people living with the parents will be for an extended amount of time without the job they were hoping for.

The economic results touted by Barack Obama are quite magical.

By magical, I mean the results he speaks of are a lot of smoke and mirrors.

The economy is not recovering and most people will realize this when they take an objective look around them.

Partisanship aside, we need to be focused on doing what is right.

Additionally, we need to be using compromise to actually resolve conflicts as opposed to using it while simply “going along”; another JFK lesson to remember.

Applying this today, do you see this being followed? I don’t. Real compromise cannot be rushed, so when things are left to the final hour, what we get is not what we need.

If anyone got the opportunity to see the President in the news the last few weeks, you have seen Obama again at his best. He is in his element, which is campaign mode. The President traveled 5,000+ miles around the country to urge against a “sequester” that he proposed in 2011.

Wrap your heads around that. How can this kind of action be defensible?

The President is a smart man and knew what he was doing in 2011. He did what he needed to do at the time and would try to get what he really wanted later.

But where does this end?

The answer is somewhere in this current term. Before 2016, there will not be a great revolt or any of that nonsense.

There will, however, be a readjustment into how things get done. Doing a national tour to argue against cutting 85 billion dollars when there is a 1+ trillion dollar budget deficit is not right, but spending other people’s money is very popular. Even better? The budget doesn’t exist, because the Democratic Party cannot, and has not, passed one in nearly four years.

Jesse Green is a senior finance major. He can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]