Super-Aging Presidents

I don't understand why anyone would want to be president of the United States. The act of serving seems to have an accelerating affect on the aging process. Sometimes with past presidents like Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, or George H.W. Bush, the effect wasn't as noticeable because they (fortunately for themselves) lost their re-election campaigns (or with Ford, his "first" election campaign). But for those (un)lucky dogs who, like Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush, made it past one term, all appeared much older and more haggard after completing their tenures than at their start. And now we come to our current president Barack Obama.

I was recently looking at the CNN website, which featured Obama's changing, aging appearance after only two and a half years in office. He really does look as if the job is getting to him. That's sad, because I genuinely like the guy and believe that he is trying to the best of his ability to serve the American people responsibly. Instead of showing the respect that the president's office demands, though, his political opponents have resorted to personal vilification campaigns against him while holding the American people hostage to their narrow, extremist ideological agenda. It seems that no matter what our president does nowadays, somebody from one side or another (or as is usually the case, both) is severely critical of him.

I have my own criticisms of some of President Obama's decisions, which I have clearly expressed in earlier articles here. But as was the case with President Bush in his own time before him (and whom I came to politically oppose), I recognize the fact that at this time in history in the year 2011, Barack Obama is my president and I support my president's efforts on behalf of our country, regardless of which political philosophy he subscribes to. Now come election time, I'll naturally vote for the candidate whose views and plans appeal more to me. But I think one thing that wears on this president more than others is the fact that his opponents seem to personally loathe him, and that they have treated him as an enemy ever since he took the presidential oath. I find that to be distinctly unamerican and unpatriotic. Respect the office of president by showing respect to its current occupant; you can still vote him out in 2012 if you want! Frankly, that may just be the best thing for Mr. Obama that could happen (but not necessarily for the rest of the country)...