Tax Cuts and Coffee

I heard something very interesting while driving to work this morning that made me think of our struggling president and it gave me a moment to turn recent events around in my head a bit.

As it turns out, bold coffee typically has the least amount of caffeine. This obviously turned my world upside down. All this time I have been fooled by the basic assumption that BOLD = STRONG.

Well, that's what you get for making broad assumptions with little to no research to back it up.

Apparently, bold coffee beans are cooked longer and as a result lose some of the natural materials that create the caffeine we Americans love so much.

Bold does not necessarily mean strong. So, given the basic logical equations - one could assume that a lack of boldness does not necessarily mean a lack of strength. Can this apply to the country? Just because the president is not making the boldest moves - does that automatically mean that he is not strong? That he will not give this country the energy boost it so desperately requires?

Now I have not been blown away by Obama. I have not read about what he is doing and thought, "WOW - thank God he is President." But let's be fair here. The man was given a field with poor soil and told to make it into a productive farm. And he took that challenge. But after he took it they threw a curveball, "Oh by the way, you can't use any tools. And your entire crew just quit."

Extending Bush tax cuts was a strange move in a lot of ways. The general idea of saving less and spending more doesn't seem like a great plan. It was in fact, a very not bold move. And at first I saw it as a collapse of Obama’s strength under the constant pressure of Republican opposition.

Do you know what the stated number one priority is of the Republican Party?

To deny President Obama a second term.

They actually said that. They have actually said that no matter what he does - they will fight him. No matter how many times he tries to get them to agree with him - to work alongside their Democratic counterparts - they will fight him.

No matter how I feel about our present Commander In Chief – that’s a tough burden to bear.

But after learning about the coffee I have second guessed my perception of our president's strength.

Perhaps Obama is not making bold moves. But when you look at the situation he has put himself in, apparently he has the strength to take on the Republican Party and the Democratic Party in order to find the balance that our country requires.

Change takes time. And maybe Obama wasn't the best choice - but he was the choice that was made and maybe, just maybe, if someone would allow him to continue making his (not so bold) moves. He will give us the strength we need. And who knows, perhaps if we let him cook a little longer our president will grow bolder and his strength will be taken up by the American people. Or he could burn and ruin the whole pot. But let’s keep it optimistic.

Then again. This is a comparison of coffee to politics, so don't take anything you read here too much to heart.