Wonderboy Picks On The Wrong People

With his formal re-election campaign announced, Wonderboy has lost no time in taking shots at various and sundry people on the political scene.

On Sunday, his attack dog and political campaign manager, David Plouffe, made the round of Sunday talk shows. Among his barbs were smirking comments that Americans 'will never hire Donald Trump' to be president. He said some other rather unkind things, as well. But I found his desultory dismissal not of Trump, per se, but of American voters' preferences, insulting.

Trump may be a buffoon, but Wonderboy is still president. It's unseemly for him to arrogantly, especially through his minions, dismiss other candidates before the fact.

Then there came Wonderboy's own personal ambush of Paul Ryan. I happened to catch a clip of him being interviewed after the president's vaunted budget address yesterday afternoon. Ryan had been invited to sit in the front row, along with, from what I could see from the video, other GOP House budgetary notaries.

Instead of the 'olive branch' Ryan said he'd been told would be on offer, Wonderboy instead personally savaged Ryan's proposal in his talk.

I think this time, the First Rookie has picked on the wrong guy. Ryan is a smart, affable, self-effacing, genuinely well-intentioned Representative. He's not smarmy, nor is he some 50-year old hack.

Of all the people Wonderboy may have chosen to target, I think Ryan is not the right one. He already showed his fear of the Wisconsin Congressman way back during the infamous Blair House health care summit. If you recall, when Ryan had the camera and was in the midst of making a very telling point, Wonderboy pointedly called an aide over and began to confer, thus drawing every camera off of Ryan and to himself. He was probably telling the aide which basketball games to Tivo that evening.

My point, however, is that a sitting president running for re-election has a delicate task. He can't appear too political or mean-spirited.

Both of which Wonderboy has managed to do in just one week.

Ryan, for the record, said that instead of an olive branch, he felt he'd merely seen the 'campaigner in chief' on display yesterday afternoon.