The Galveston County Daily News

You may recall, Dear Reader, that a week or so after the inauguration of our new president, I promised not to give him a hard time until he’d bedded himself into his new day job.

It was a promise I felt compelled to make as I had garnered great glee in giving the previous incumbent, one George Walker Bush, a hefty amount of stick for some of his more eccentric maneuvers and quasi-aphorisms. I didn’t want y’all thinking that my only pleasure in life is to barrack the recognized leader of the free world.

Just lately, I’ve taken to thinking that I’ve seen enough of the emperor in his new clothes to determine that the bedding-in process is complete, but I’m still not totally ready to lay into the poor chap.

That said, I’m beginning to detect evidence that he’s none too worried about foregoing some of his campaign promises and Rose Garden sound bites. Like Nat Hentoff, whose excellent accounts of governmental sidestepping in constitutional matters sometimes feature on these pages, I rather suspect that Obama the Politician is steadily marching to the fore, leaving cuddly old Barack in the background.

One recent piece of evidence suggested that with a pointedness I found quite jarring. So I’m a mite bemused that it doesn’t seem to have made its mark among my friends whose political persuasion lies somewhere between those of Rush Limbaugh and Attila the Hun — yes, I know it’s a thin line, but someone has to define it.

The evidence to which I refer is a comment just a couple of weeks ago that, should the health insurance legislation pass Congress, Americans will see the benefit in 2013.

What?

Have I been cocking a deaf ear to the president since January or have I heard him say, quite distinctly and at every opportunity, that he wants to solve the health insurance problem this year?

Granted, no amount of legislation passed this side of Christmas will produce more equitable health care funding by New Year’s Eve, but is it not unreasonable to believe that expressions of desire for a quick solution should be couched in phrases such as “in place by spring or summer 2010” or some such?

Good grief, Barry, you may not even be president in 2013 — and where will that leave we common or garden citizens then?

However, I’m not carping. I’m still in the jury room and holding out for a not-guilty verdict. Perhaps a president emboldened by the passing of prized legislation can speed things up a bit among his lackeys and cut our hospital bills before we start dying of excess wallet discharge. If you’re inclined to think that at least a tad naive, don’t go bungee-jumping, upsetting your boss or poking fun at policemen for the next four years.

If, on the other hand, you think I’m being unreasonably hard on the commander in chief, it’s probably because I’m having an anaphylactic reaction to the words of a reader who telephoned to give me a verbal lashing this week.

She accused me of being responsible for the “daily illustrations with negative comments about the president that appear in the newspaper.”

I asked for clarification and was referred to Wednesday’s opinion page. “Oh, you mean the cartoon,” I said, hoping to soothe her ire.

“Well, I don’t think it’s a cartoon,” she shot back. “Remember, he’s your president, too, even if you didn’t vote for him. Keep your right-wing views to yourself.”

With that, she hung up, leaving me to ponder the likely costs of an emergency GOPotomy.

Englishman and former Fleet Street journalist Ian White is editor of Applause. Contact him by e-mail at ian.white(at)galvnews.com.