Does Post 9/11 America Need A Cowboy In Charge?

By Alicia Colon

A week after the September 11th attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, President George W. Bush said that he wanted Osama bin Laden, "dead or alive."

Toby Harnden in the U.K Telegraph called his words, "some of the most bellicose language used by a White House occupant in recent years." He also wrote, "Some advisers said that although the comments might be popular in America, they would not be welcomed by European or Arab allies."

He was right but it didn't take long for the Northeastern elite to derisively condemn Bush as a "cowboy."

The public at large, however, seemed comforted by the tough stance of our president even though they knew that Bush was not a real cowboy.

The transplanted Easterner born in New Haven, Conn.; graduate of Yale with a Harvard MBA, adapted to the Western culture like a duck to water.

His media critics ironically are New Yorkers who routinely shed their Midwestern heritage to become affected elitist Manhattanites.

But the stereotype of the cowboy as a rough and tumble character of heroic proportions is no myth. I'm not speaking of the urban cowboy who rides a mechanical bull in bars, donning a ten gallon hat and wearing thousand dollar fancy boots. I'm talking about a working cowboy on a ranch who rides live full grown bulls for sport or for a living.

For the longest time I had thought of Spanish matadors as the epitome of machismo and bravado. I eagerly went to my first bullfight in Madrid in 1965, and saw several more after that.

While vacationing in Torremolinos in 1969 I traveled to a small town to see El Cordobes, who was at that time, a renowned matador and jet set figure. I was only mildly impressed by his bravery because the first stage of the corrida where he performs a series of passes with the red cape to observe the behavior of the bull is not very long. Then the picadors come in on horseback with lances that stab the bull in the muscle behind the neck drawing blood and weakening it for the kill. Not quite a fair fight I thought but I was just a tourist with no right to criticize another culture.

But then I saw a rodeo in of all places, Madison Square Garden, where the bull is treated with respect and prized for its ferocity by the men who ride on its back and best of all the bull is allowed to live.

Even more impressive were the rodeo clowns who distract the bull when a rider falls and expose themselves to great danger to protect the cowboys.

This is a very brave breed of men something that has become very rare on the eastern seaboard and in La La land.

New York City used to be a tough town and WWII movies would always have that Brooklyn GI character who walked and talked tough and died saving his buddies.

Now we have a nanny for a mayor who shuts Manhattan down for the first time ever shouting "Irene is coming, Irene is coming." He made all of us look like a bunch of wusses.

Let's face it - elite liberals are not known for their bravery or physical prowess. John Kerry tried to promote his military service in Vietnam and his three purple hearts until the Swift boat vets pointed out that Kerry had filmed his stay there for a possible political future and had actually only served a combat tour of 4 months, 12 days in Vietnam.

His purple hearts had been for superficial wounds and in one case may have been caused by his own negligence but the PH awards allowed him to leave Vietnam without completing his tour.

Although the Democrats tried to paint George W. Bush as a dummy and someone who had dodged service during the Vietnam War, the fact remained that he was a jet pilot for the National Guard and flew a highly dangerous aircraft - the F102 Delta Dagger- which had already killed 70 pilots.

Just getting behind the cockpit of that death trap took courage but that's not something the Bush Derangement Syndrome sufferers will ever admit.

Thus far, our current president Barack Obama has not demonstrated any particular feats of courage and who can forget Bill Clinton, a real draft dodger cringing in fear, his face beet red, while surrounded by hundreds of admirers in Ghana.

Now enter Gov. Rick Perry, a genuine cowboy from Texas and suddenly he's ahead in the 2012 GOP race pulling ahead of perennial leader Mitt Romney.

Why the surge in support from likely Republican voters? Media pundits may attack Perry as an extremist and for having a Texas "swagger" reminiscent of the Bush presidency but there may be a deeper appeal to Perry's candidacy that is hard to define.

The Obama administration has turned off many conservatives and independents with its seemingly subservience to influential international figureheads.

The president's reluctance to viewing our country as exceptional is distinctly opposite of many American's own opinion of our nation.

They are also tired of speeches made with the use of a teleprompter and would rather hear straight talk they can understand that offers solutions.

Gov. Perry has been castigated for his remarks calling Social Security a Ponzi scheme unfair to the young who are paying for it and will never be able to collect from it.

He is absolutely correct but Social Security is one of those sacred cows that politicians dare not attack for fear of turning off senior citizens.

I cheered when I heard Perry say these words and although I am not ready to endorse anyone this early on I found it refreshing to hear the truth spoken out loud.

Those literary semantic geeks who insist that the description 'Ponzi' is incorrect because there is no fraud involved do not live in the real world where people know that fraud means promising something that does not exist and making people pay for it.

Last Wednesday's Republican debate moderated by lefty loonies from NBC demonstrated that all the Republican candidates had clear cut proposals to revamp the economy.

Every single candidate with the exceptions of John Huntsman and Ron Paul - who do not represent the majority of Republican positions - would make formidable opponents to Obama once the public gets to know them.

Incidentally that cowboy in the middle didn't do too badly and just might prove to be what Americans are hankering for in a leader.

Alicia Colon resides in New York City and can be reached at aliciav.colon@gmail.com and at www.aliciacolon.com