The PG-13 Presidency by John DePetro

The PG-13 Presidency by John DePetro

The situation of President Obama making an "ass" out of himself over how angry he is over the oil spill reminds me of the old game show "Match Game."

"Just how mad is the President?" barks out host Gene Rayburn, "so mad he wants to kick some----blank." Brett Sommers and Charles Nelson Reilly would have had fun over this one, laughing it up with Gene and the other contestants. When the panel held up their cards, few could have guessed just how low-brow the highest office in the land has been taken by the Pop Culture President. The "blank" may have been filled with guesses like kick some "tail" or" republicans" or" BP Executives." But I don't think any contestant would have guessed the leader of the free world would listen to Spike Lee and just "go off" with Matt Lauer. What if other Presidents had decided that slang was appropriate?

President Bush announces in May of 2003,"Mission f***g accomplished

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Or Bush 41 saying" read my lips, no new f***g taxes."

President Reagan chimes in "Mr. Gorbachev, get off your ass and tear down this f***g wall."

President Lincoln proclaims, "Four score and seven f-***g years ago."

President Nixon looks at the camera and says "I am not a f***g crook."

Regardless of how you may feel about past Presidents, I think it's only fair to acknowledge that most acted more, well, Presidential in public discourse. When you are the President of the United State, you may want to relate to the average guy on the street, but President Obama is not the average guy on the street! Instead of employing slang to sound "really mad" and "really tough" about who's to blame for the oil disaster I think the public would rather see him take the mad, tough act to those in charge at the spill site and get control of it.

I find it ironic that in the same week that we see the PG-13 presidency on full display, a separate but perhaps not unrelated media event occurs at the MTV Movie Awards show. Censors worked overtime as100 swear words were recorded in 122 minutes, 70 making it past the censors. MTV had warned viewers its awards show was for "14 and up." When a pop culture awards show, aimed at an audience 14 years old and up, features hosts and performers spewing foul language on national cable TV during the same week the President employs a common used but vulgar slang term, is it any wonder that our youth are increasingly comfortable in classrooms and on the playing fields using aggressively foul language that was once considered out of bounds?

If ever there was a time that young people need - and deserve - a higher standard from their President, it's now.

Even Gene Rayburn and the crew at "Match Game" would have been thumbs up on that.

John DePetro can be heard weekdays on WPRO from 6 am till 10 am.