Obamas' Asian Trip

There are wonderful photos of the Obamas' entire Asian trip up on the Wall St. Jnl's website tonight—more than 30 of them. I desperately want to see O make a stunning comeback from the recent election pounding and think he can do it, although I am unable to advance any very convincing reasons why I think that. Obama is so classy. He (and Michelle) are so slender, so beautifully dressed, and take such heart-warming pix that it is hard to believe in what all the nay-sayers are putting out: that he is a betraying bum who doesn't keep his promises and won't make it to a second term and in general is a weakling. He certainly knows how to hold his head up when the world is watching. My present estimate of the last four presidents, Reagan, Bush the elder, Clinton, and Bush junior, is that they were all, one way or another, schlobs. (I just made that word up; I think you know what it means.) I can't presently see O that way. But what a plateful of horrors he has to deal with worldwide and what a crowd of grossly greedy corporate kingpins he has to reckon with at home. The WSJ tonight is also treating us to a wrap-up on executive compensation: a short course on how how the rich are getting richer. I own to having some interest in this display of top level grossers—good word that, meaning top-level earners but also top-level hogs. I am curious to see just how bad it can get before something bad (good?) happens.