This former Navy enlisted man  --  before entering West Point to become an Army officer and Vietnam War veteran  --  is getting a little suspicious about non-veteran Barack Obama using Medal of Honor ceremonies around the time he is hitting record-low disapproval rating marks.  Such hugely-publicized ceremonies don't hurt as he faces his up-hill reelection battle.  Obama's Medal of Honor ceremonies remind me of the shenanigans which Bill Clinton pulled when he got into trouble, which occurred with great frequency, during his presidency.

A major motion picture came out during Bill Clinton's presidency starring big Hollywood stars Robert DiNero and Dustin Hoffman named "Wag the Dog."  Clinton had a habit of starting a little war somewhere in the world when he was in especially deep political trouble.  The worst was when Kenneth Starr, the special prosecutor, and the Republican-controlled United States House of Representatives were bearing down on him because of the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

Just before Clinton was impeached in the House of Representatives in December 1998, he actually began another war to help prevent the imminent impeachment.  It didn't work.  The Republicans impeached him anyway and he became the first and only elected president impeached. 

Columnist Phillip Coppens wrote:  "The title of the movie was taken from a joke: “Why does a dog wag its tail? Because a dog is smarter than its tail. If the tail was smarter, the tail would wag the dog.” As usual, there are various interpretations as to what it means. Some suggest that the dog symbolises public opinion, and that the tail represents the media; others suggest that the dog is the media, and the tail is political campaigns. But the most likely opinion is that the dog is the people and that the tail is the government. In short, the expression “the tail wagging the dog” refers to any case where something of greater significance (such as a war) is driven by something less (such as a sex scandal)."

Coppens went on to write:  "Over the course of 1998 and early 1999, as the scandal dominated American politics, Clinton seemed to take inspiration from the movie and engaged US forces in three military campaigns. There was Operation Desert Fox, a three-day bombing campaign in Iraq, which took place at the time when the House of Representatives debated articles of impeachment against Clinton.... No wonder that critics charged that these operations were an attempt to distract public attention away from the Lewinsky scandal."

On a personal note, days before the House of Representatives impeached Clinton while his "Operation Desert Fox" was raging, I told the House Majority Whip, who was looking for advice in a public forum, that we Vietnam War veterans  --  and indeed active-duty military personnel who could not speak out  --  would want the Republican leadership and the House of Representatives to do their duty, regardless of Clinton's "war" in Iraq proceeding at the same time.  Other military veterans then stood up and delivered the same message to the House Majority Whip. 

Which brings me back to the subject of Obama's Medal of Honor ceremonies.  Have you noticed that Obama has been presenting an awful lot of Medals of Honor recently?  President George W. Bush, a military veteran, presented only 3 Medals of Honor during his first term (4 years), all to deceased military heroes.

In less than 3 years, Obama has presented a whopping 7 Medals of Honor including to 3 living recipients, which of course, gain Obama far more publicity than giving a Medal of Honor to a deceased American hero.  And Obama has 14 more months to go in his term.  With an election year coming up, who knows how many Medals of Honor Obama will be awarding. 

As Phillip Coppens wrote about Clinton's attempted distractions from his Monica Lewinsky scandals, it makes you wonder if Obama is distracting public attention away from his dismal record and trying to boost his dismal reelection prospects.