A "Bully Pulpit!"....

My, how word meanings change with the times and the players involved:

"Bully pulpit" comes from the 26th U.S. President, Theodore Roosevelt, who observed that the White House was a bully pulpit. For Roosevelt, "bully" was an adjective meaning "excellent" or "first-rate" -- not the noun "bully" ("a blustering browbeating person") that's so common today. Roosevelt understood the modern presidency's power of persuasion and recognized that it gave the incumbent the opportunity to exhort, instruct, or inspire" (link)

Recently however, the White House (Oval Office) seems to be converted to a Chicagoland, Al Capone type 'Bully Pulpit'.

"Hey, that's a nice car company, 'be a shame to have it shut down."

"Hey, that's a great guitar company, where'd you say you buy your wood?"

"Hey, your polling company has been in business for years, be a shame if our Justice department sued it into bankruptcy."

You know of what I speak -- I noted this morning that HHS has decided that smoking should be banned on ALL college campuses. And it might be a good thing. But since there is no law...... "Hey, it would be a shame if you lost all those gob'ment research grants, student Pell grants and federal student loans, wouldn't it?"

I guess the question we all need to ask ourselves, between now and November 6th, is not just, 'Which candidate will more likely shrink gob'mint and get it out of our lives?' - but to rethink what we want and don't want from the federal gob'mint in the first place.

Hmm, seems like a good place to repeat the Tenth Amendment to our Constitution.... you know - the one that EVERY elected official swears to uphold:

Amendment X
"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people."

That's not all that complicated - is it?