Barack Obama’s 50th and MTV’s 30th, But Who is Having a Better Birthday?

Editor's Note: The following opinion piece does not reflect the views of Norcross Patch. For another opinion on Obama on his birthday, please look here. 

Barack Obama is 50 years old today and MTV is 30 years old this week. The two have a great deal in common: They are generational peers - though certainly not equal, both truly believe they’re in the mainstream and neither has stuck to their original message.

MTV is a mere shell of what it once was, more Reality Television, nowadays, than Music Television.  Likewise, all of the “hope and change” that the group Rock Star Barry & His Friends promised during their 2008 nationwide tour is nowhere to be found on the Political Billboard’s Top 50 Hits, unless you count the fact that most Americans “hope” we can survive before the nation is “changed” into a third-world country.

We’re behind on the world economic stage as well and have been for a while – a couple of years.  For as long as most of the world can remember, the phrase “full faith and trust of the United States government” meant something to those who looked to American treasury bills and the U.S. dollar as safe economic havens anywhere in the world. 

Now?  Now, that trust has been shaken because we came incredibly close, within a matter of hours, to defaulting on our debt for the first time – ever – this week. 

But what was Obama concerned about? 

His re-election; getting a birthday present in the form of a debt ceiling increase that would be enough to cover him until after the 2012 elections.  That’s important because, when you’re a “tax and spend” president with approval numbers at 40 percent and heading south, you’ve got to have the money for special interest groups that can help you “position” your bid for re-election. 

To paraphrase the famous Winston Churchill anecdote: Obama turns to MTV at a music awards “after” party and says, “MTV, I see your latest ‘reality’ show is a flop.”  To which MTV replies, “And we see you’ll soon to be out of a job, Mr. President.  However, tomorrow we will produce a ‘new’ reality show, but you will still be out of a job.”

Happy Birthday, Mr. President.

About the author:  Randy Wyles is an award winning business and political journalist and a regular contributor to Norcross Patch.com.  His weekly column, Creekside Journal, appears each Sunday on Johns Creek Patch.com. Wyles is also the Senior Investigator for the Alpharetta, GA based private investigations firm of Hunter Investigations, LLC. and has worked under private contract for the U.S. Department of Justice.