President Obama can Sympathise with Rob Ford

Embattled Mayor Ford of Toronto should not have had to go through the week he did

With the news this week that Mayor Ford has been "removed from office" pending an appeal, it dawned on me that there are real parallels between Mayor Ford and US President Barrack Obama dating back to when we first heard of both of them in the political spectrum. Don't believe me? Well let me take the time to show you exactly what I am referring to.

When Ford started off his political career as a city counselor, he railed against the greed he saw in city counsel and was a consistent thorn in the side of Miller and all his croonies who were voting in higher pay for themselves, higher spending budgets for themselves and little to no regard for something called "a budget". He was the loudest vocal critic of Miller and for all his thrifty ways, and the fact he didn't spend a single penny of his office budget, HE was the one investigated. Kind of funny how the man who was demonstrating how to be fiscally responsible during Miller's days as Mayor and constantly complained about the spending ways of former Mayor David Miller's regime, ended up being the one investigated himself.. His wasn't the only voice that complained about Miller but it certainly was the loudest.

Ford sparring with Miller was a common occurrence back in the day

One has to wonder if Miller's friend in the media continue to attack Ford just out of loyalty

During Miller's time as Mayor, there wasn't as much as a peep about his spending spending and how he was basically flushing taxpayer dollars down the drain. The only person who consistently fought against Miller's wasteful spending was none other then Counselor Rob Ford. When Miller announced that he would not seek re-election after his final term ended in 2010, it signaled a chance to have someone different try to fight their way into the mayor's office and that was exactly what Ford did. He campaigned on his record and pointed to the wasteful spending ways of Miller and, guess what, people agreed with him!!! Funny how that works.

The voting public believed in the change Ford was talking about. Sounds like someone else doesn't it. President Obama basically was selling a similar message in 2008. He too campaigned on getting into office to correct the wasteful spending ways of his predecessor (who essentially left Obama with a turd sandwich for an economy when he left office).

Considering the crap Bush left behind, Obama has set a deadline to end operations in Afghanistan,

ended the war in Iraq, Killed Osama Bin Laden and avoided a Fiscal meltdown cause by Bush

yet Republicans think he is a fascist, socialist, muslim who wants their guns....hmmmm  

Like Obama, Mayor Ford has been thwarted at every turn by political adversaries over every single one of his promises. Ford wants Subways (the smart and environmentally sound choice to try and turn Toronto into the world class city its' citizens already think it is) yet everyone else in city counsel, in their infinite wisdom, wants Light Rail Transit that will clog our streets and congest an already unbearably congested downtown core even more. Ford has been fighting to eliminate wasteful spending and, shockingly, despite having to argue and bicker with everyone in city counsel about just about every one of his motions or ideas, the city coffers are actually starting to stabilize after 2 years of sound fiscal policies.

Just like Ford, Obama has had to endure political gridlock in Washington along with an economy that was on the verge of fiscal collapse. Despite being saddled with a nearly crippling economy and over 398 times when the Republicans filibusted (essentially did everything they possibly could to stop a proposed piece of legislation endorsed by the President from passing into law), President Obama was able to pull the American economy out of the nosedive it was in, reformed student loans to ease the crushing repayment options forced upon students, instituted Obama-care giving basic health care to over 3 million Americans and created over 5 million new jobs (despite losing almost a million in the first year of his 4 year term).

 Obama actually had lunch with Romney yesterday, at the White House no less

Maybe it was to rub it in just a bit that "Hey, this is still MY HOUSE BITCH!!!"

Like Ford, Obama's political opponents have been steadfast in their ridiculous approach to "dealing with" the President. When the Tea Party started to gain prominence in 2009 and were instrumental in getting several radical Republicans into the Senate, they made it clear that their main goal was to prevent Obama's re-election. They didn't care that they were basically shutting down the US Government for 2 years and wreaking havoc on the lives of every American in the process, they had a mission and come hell or high water, by God, they wee going to go through with it. Sounds a lot like the way people have been opposing Mayor Ford.

Instead of focusing on the messages of both men, opponents have instead opted to focus on the physical appearance and/or name, race or beliefs as reasons to openly oppose them. Opponents of both men have attacked them for being fat, for being rough around the edges (Ford) or for the family connection to Islam and their name and race (Obama) because they know that we as people are too stupid to wade through their crap and see their attacks as what they are; pathetic attempts by the opponents of these men to try to obscure their accomplishments by trying to make people mad about other things that have no bearing on reality nor upon their ability to lead.

I would suggest that despite all of these people and their dirty tactics used against these two men, they have accomplished much more than anyone seems to realize. Republicans have, in my opinion, been bordering on treasonous behaviour in the way (especially Tea Party members) have been acting in Congress and the Senate, blocking every attempt possible to get the political machine moving in Washington. Mayor Ford has had to deal with the fact that a minor charity fund raising issue has, for some reason, been brought to a court proceeding and resulted in a heavy handed suggestion by the courts that he be removed from office. Let's get the facts straight here. Mayor Ford admitted that he helped raise $3500 or so in funds for a youth football team, agreed that he had to repay the funds himself and voted in favour of his repayment and somehow that makes it right that he be booted out of office?

The actions of his opponents are despicable in my estimation. Here is a man who has his issues, that's a given, but who has been able to accomplish something Mayor Miller never could (balance a budget) and yet his opponents would prefer to squander that fiscal change and force an election that would cost the city about $7 million (conservatively speaking) all over this stupid matter that should never have gone to court. The Mayors of Montreal and Laval have been forced out of their jobs in the last 2 months as well but in both of those cases, we are talking about fraud and corruption that was well into the millions of dollars and that were only discovered by accident. In Ford's case, he himself readily admitted his errors and even voted in favour of forcing himself to repay the money and yet he is being forced out of office? WTF?!?!

 Don't get me wrong, Hazel is the best but her scandal last year was 

1000 times worse in scope and nature then Mayor Ford, and she is still Mayor

The people of Toronto as well as Republicans who continue to rail against Obama, have lost all my respect. The way they are acting right now (or should I say overreacting) in the case of Ford tells me that they would treat a zit on their forehead by cutting off the patients head. They are radicals who have no business in politics given the way they are reacting to such a trivial issue. I mean for the love of God Hazel McCallion, long time Mayor of Mississauga was invilved in her own scandal which was much more nefarious then what Ford admitted to doing (helping her son land an $11 million Convention center and hotel deal) and no a single person I know of felt that she should be forced out of office (even IF she had been found guilty, I still think she would have kept her job).

The difference is that she has the support of the people and Ford doesn't. Or at least he doesn't have the support of the right people, namely the media who consistently chose to mock him for his weight loss attempts and attack him whenever they can about any tiny thing he does wrong (like picking up some KFC or coaching the Don Bosco high school football team, neither of which has ANYTHING to do with his job as Mayor). Frankly, I would surmise that the media has been on a paparazzi-like witch hunt on Mayor Ford ever since he reacted angrily when a Toronto Star writer literally violated his privacy by trying to get pictures of the mayor at his own home.

They saw that they could antagonize him and he would react like a normal person, not like a real polished politician and they said screw it, lets keep poking the bear and see how he reacts each time. I mean if you listen to the Dean Blundell show on the Edge, every morning he and the guys find something new about the Mayor to mock him about. I love their show but at the same time, enough is enough. The man still has done a decent job, both despite his political adversaries and in spite of himself. But the message has been lost because of the messenger. Everyone has been so focused on the who that they have forgotten about the what.

 I'm not sure there is anything President Obama will ever be able to do to get his critics

off his back aside from flying a jet into an alien armada and saving the planet like 

Bill Pullman did in Independence Day

I am almost 100% positive that Mayor Ford will be able to fight off this challenge to his position and, given the fact that President Obama won a 2nd term, he will be able to get much more accomplished in the next 4 years then he did in his first 4 (and he did do a lot more then the Republicans will ever admit). Its just pathetic to me that at a time when people are always talking about "anti-bullying" and respect for all people that we are still looking at people and judging them based upon their appearance, their name their race and their political affiliations. We still haven't grown past them and, as much as people want to say that Toronto and Canada as a whole is not as divided as the US, I think it is quite clear that we are much more divided then even we realize.