As one of the all-time winningest coaches and coordinators in NFL history, New England Patriots head coach Belichick is synonymous with playoff victories (most-ever), Super Bowl appearances, 3-4 defensive mastery, offensive wizardry, creative play-calling and AFC East championship titles.
But he’s not known for honesty.
Among Belichick’s less-celebrated distinctions, he also holds the NFL record for the largest fine for a coach in league history ($500,000 from the 2007 “Spygate” scandal, when he illegally videotaped the New York Jets’ sideline signals) – and he’s an odds-on favorite to add to this tally when the NFL concludes their investigation of Inflategate, where over 90 percent of all Patriots’ footballs “mysteriously” deflated at halftime – which (oddly enough!) directly coincided with Patriots’ quarterback Tom Brady’s stated preference for throwing an underinflated football.
Not unlike the New England head coach, President Barack Obama is also uncommonly successful at his chosen profession. Before completing a single term in the U.S. Senate, Obama vanquished Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton, crushed Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain, parlayed amorphous platitudes like “hope and change” into landslide victory, captured the Nobel Peace Prize, crowbarred Obamacare through Congress – and then capped if off by cruising to reelection over former Gov. Mitt Romney.
Like Belichick, Obama is wildly successful, but not particularly honest – at least according to a growing number of Americans: In 2009, 78 percent of Americans had a favorable personable opinion of Obama (a scant 18 percent had a negative opinion), yet by 2014, 52 percent viewed him negatively and just 47 percent viewed him positively. Likewise, from 2008 through June of 2012, over 60 percent of Americans considered Obama honest and trustworthy; by June 2014, that number plummeted to 47 percent. (For more information, see Gallup.)
More than just footballs, it seems, have deflated: Obama’s oft-asserted promise that, “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it,” was named PolitiFact’s 2013 Lie of the Year.
In American mythology, George Washington never told a lie. In football mythology, Miami Dolphins Hall of Fame running back Larry Csonka once found the Oakland Raiders game plan prior to their football game. Excited, Csonka handed the game plan to Monte Clark (the Miami offensive line coach), telling him to give it to head coach Don Shula. Miami lost to the Oakland. The following day, Csonka confronted Clark: “How did we lose? We had their game plan.” Clark answered: “I gave it to Don [Shula] and he threw it in the trash. He said, ‘We do not cheat!’”
Different men of a different generation.
During his 2015 State of the Union address, the President declared: “I have no more campaigns to run.” That statement eerily echoed Coach Belichick’s feigned bewilderment over the deflated footballs; in truth, Obama hasn’t stopped campaigning, nor will he stop campaigning.
It’s who he is.
When the GOP won majorities in the House and Senate in 1994, a chastened President Clinton began his State of the Union address with a simple acknowledgement: “…all of us, Republicans and Democrats alike, must say: We hear you. We will work together to earn the jobs you have given us.” Clinton proceeded to cooperate with Congress, signing landmark legislation that included welfare reform, tax cuts and a balanced budget.
In contrast, President Obama didn’t acknowledge the GOP’s victory in his last State of the Union address. In fact, the only political victories he acknowledged were his own. And behind the scenes, instead of seeking compromise or attempting to cooperate with the GOP majorities, the White House dipped into the Belichick playbook and told Democrats that he would “play offense.”
Even though it’s time to stop playing and start governing.
And so, the campaign continues: President Obama used his State of the Union address to pound the war-drums for far-left political proposals that were too liberal to pass even when the Democrats controlled the House, the Senate and the White House during his first term: Tax-hikes, closing Guantanamo Bay, increased government spending, new federal entitlement programs, Iranian nuclear negotiations with no Congressional oversight, etcetera, etcetera.
For Obama, “bipartisanship” means speaking out of both sides of his mouth.
The president brazenly threatens to act unilaterally wherever he can, boasts of going over the heads on Congress, disregards immigration laws he personally dislikes, enacts executive actions of dubious constitutionality… and then is outraged when Congress acts on its own to invite the Israeli Prime Minister to speak – because they did so without including him.
Rules of decorum and the laws of the land, it seems, are for “other people” to follow. They don’t apply to him.
Bill Belichick couldn’t have scripted it any better.
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