Called on the Tarmac

Years ago, my mother and younger brother had a heated argument about something.  My brother was still a teenager.  He was six feet two inches tall (and had another two inches to go).  Mom was 5 feet 7, tallish for a woman.  In the midst of the argument, my brother yelled something and raised his hand as if to hit her.  His fist was still in mid-air when my mother thundered, “Are you raising your hand to me?!  Do you think you’re going to hit me, your mother?!”

With that, she put the old choke hold on him and lifted all six foot two of him, and commensurate weight, to the ceiling.  As he dangled there, his arms flailing and his face turning lobster red from the lack of oxygen, she let him know what would happen to him if he ever struck or ever dare tried to strike her again.  He never raised his hand to her again.

Obama flew to Arizona in great state, where Gov. Jan Brewer awaited him to personally deliver a letter to him requesting that he support Arizona’s right to guard its borders and enforce federal laws against illegal immigration.

Obama had a very different agenda on his mind.  As he descended the airliner staircase, the engines of the jet still running, he quickly took the letter and without reading it, handed it off to a Secret Service agent who threw it in the back of the presidential limousine.

“I don’t appreciate what you wrote about me in your book,” he said angrily of a book she’d written six months earlier, “saying I treated you poorly.”  A heated exchange followed with the now-famous photo of Brewer wagging her finger in Obama’s face.

Obama’s cheerleaders have painted a portrait of an insignificant governor excoriating the poor President of the United States of America.  All the president’s secret service agents and all the president’s jets couldn’t protect him from the wrath of one woman.  Poor Obama.

So the President flies to Arizona, with his phalanx of Secret Service armored cars, his 747, and fighter jets flying overhead.  Is Gov. Jan Brewer intimidated by this display of power and hubris?  Nope.  She gives it right back to him and wags her finger in the face of the President of the United States.  Does it matter that he outranks her?  Nope.  Does it matter that he has the U.S. military and the Secret Service at his disposal?  Nope.  Does it matter that he’s so much taller than she is?  Nope.  Does it matter that he’s a man and she’s a woman?  Nope, nope, nope.

All that matters is that she took him on, after personally delivering a letter to him allegedly asking him to support U.S. immigration laws.  Now that’s chutzpah.  The true picture is rather obvious; of a courageous woman standing up to the president of the United States.  His cheerleaders must somehow burnish his tarnished, humiliated image. 

Make no mistake; it’s a humiliating picture for Obama and his cheerleaders, and an encouraging portrait for the beleaguered Conservatives.  We were looking for someone who could stand up to this guy, and there she is, on the tarmac in Arizona for all to see.

How did the GOP manage to overlook her when vetting candidates for the 2012 election?  It’s too late now, but what a great team Brewer and Chris Christie would make in a future election.