Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia passed away 13 February and our president rushed off the golf course to express a few seconds of sympathy. A very brief statement of sympathy in which our president could not help himself in getting in a few digs at the late Justice Scalia’s interpretation of the Constitution, which was quickly followed by a classless announcement that he planned to appoint a replacement for Justice Scalia and he did not give a tinker’s dam who objected.
Anyone who has a genuine scintilla of compassion for the family and friends of Justice Scalia would have waited at least until the body cooled to turn his death into a political circus.
As I watched President Obama speak I was saying to myself, please express sympathy and leave it at that, take the moral high ground and wait a day or two to join the political controversy, be a leader and not a partisan political hack. President Obama disappointed me and lost a chance to be seen as a leader, not a gutter snipe of a Chicago politician.
The gaggle of Republicans running for President addressed the vacancy on the Supreme Court that day and the pending appointment to fill it, much to their discredit, and they deserve to be fully rebuked as well. President Obama could have written a positive page in the history of his presidency by holding the high ground and just waiting 48 hours to be political. He could have stood above the fray and been a leader.
History will not look kindly at this page in President Obama’s legacy.
Robert M. Traxler, Dorr Township
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