PRESIDENTIAL GRIDLOCK

President Obama flew to Los Angeles for a Democratic fundraiser and brought traffic to an absolute standstill. I wrote the following letter to the LA Times:

The president's visit to Los Angeles is a perfect metaphor for the arrogance and incompetence of government. The Democratic Party needs money in order to function. That's understandable. As the head of his party, the president is the natural star of any fund raising event. Also understandable. And the president' safely is primary at all times. Without question. However, all three things could easily be accomplished without bringing rush-hour traffic to a standstill and creating a three hour nightmare for hundreds of thousands of commuters. Hold the fund raiser at one of the posh, airport hotels. The president would only have to travel a few blocks, and traffic would be virtually uninterrupted. Of course, the inconvenience would be to the privileged few who actually get to dine with the president, but at $30,000 per couple, I'm sure they could afford to limo to the event. Not really much of an inconvenience.

The notion that the public should pay the price for the president's "private" visit is a denial of every principle on which Obama campaigned: it is politics as usual and politics from the top down. And speaking of "the price:" Will the Democratic Party, which raised a million dollars from the president's visit, be picking up the tab for his trip, or will this simply be another bailout? This is not the change we were promised.