The president as comfortor-in-chief

As Barack Obama has wrapped up preaching sweet nothings of consolation to the families of the 29 West Virginia coal miners killed earlier this month, let me say that I just don't "get" the idea of president as comforter pastor/counselor-in-chief. I didn't get it with Reagan, though it irked me less then. I didn't get it Clinton (don't recall Poppy Bush even doing it), didn't get it with W. and don't get it with Obama.

First, let me say this isn't a party/political philosophy thing. I don't "get it" with Republicans or Democrats.

Second, it's not an atheism thing. I didn't "get it" even while I was still in religious transition, or, to the degree I thought about it, before I was too far down that road.

It's simply that I didn't elect a president (though I've not voted for the eventual occupant of the White House since 1992) to be pastor/counselor-in-chief. Nor am I comfortable with the majority of the American public thinking that should be part of his (or her) job description.

Yes, I know, presidents and prime ministers do it elsewhere, too. Unfortunately, like McDonald's, that's one of America's lesser exports, as I assume that's how the custom has taken root elsewhere.

That said, I commented above about Obama preaching sweet nothings of consolation in West Virginia. And, it's true. Until just before the Big Sandy disaster, his administration was letting mountaintop-removal coal mining continue; it had not gotten noticeably tougher with Massey than BushCo; and, contra worries about miners and mine owners alike, Team Obama had not pushed a serious climate change bill that would cause major changes to King Coal.

But, from the specific back to the general.

Other than Bush becoming Hitlerian, and treating 9/11 and al Qaeda like the Reichstag fire and Marinus van der Lubbe, other "comforters in chief," as comforters, have neither said nor done much to address the problems leading to the tragedy.

Clinton neither fully admitted that Janet Reno and even more, the ATF, mucked up Waco. At the same time, he never did get honest with the general public about just how serious an issue the militias problem was, a bill we're paying today with Tea Partier overlap.

Bush? Beyond holding the country's hand for the impending "War on Terror," he did little actual comforting of 9/11 victims' families, nor did he try to.

Obama has a chance to do more. Like push for real jobs retraining for people like West Virginia coal miners. To push for adequate funding and staffing of a variety of federal regulatory agencies. And more.

All while pushing for real climate change legislation, for a cleaner, and often safer, fuel than coal can be.

Will he?

Probably not.

That's not the neoliberal answer.