Another way Obama makes the world a better place

Written last Friday:

I should specify that Obama makes it a better place than when George Bush was holding the Presidential golf clubs. That goes without saying. But I'm just talking about one specific thing.

I started work here in October of 2001. Whenever George came to visit you knew he was coming. You could tell because each gate had two blocks worth of traffic coming out of it from all the people trying to get through security to get to work. There's always security, but on Presidential visiting days it became a problem. You knew he was here from the sound of all the helicopters criss-crossing the grounds. You knew he was here from the line of cars waiting for permission to leave. Being on base was such a pain in the ass that they wouldn't even schedule patients that day. Before long people started scheduling their days off so they wouldn't have to come to base if George was gonna be around.

Today a couple of people mentioned that Barack was coming.

The response was always, "Really? Are you sure? I got on base with no problem."

I walked over to the museum and saw no signs of stern men with black SUVs. But apparently he was here even then. Yet there were no helicopters filling the sky. I'm told it's a bit different inside the hospital itself. It's shut down for his visit. The rest of us would never know.

I'm told from people who have been here longer than I that it was the same way under Clinton. He comes, he goes, and if you didn't already know he was there then you probably never would.

In fact, there was more evidence of him off base than there was on base. As I rode down 16th street there was no traffic on the road. Police were stationed at every intersection blocking traffic and making it easy for Obama to make the straight shot back to the White House. This is standard. I went a dozen blocks before one cop finally decided that a guy on a Segway was a security risk and routed me over a block.