Obama is the president of the most powerful country on earth…at the moment.  The caveat is due to his continual work to leave the US as a mediocre, second-rate country.  This is neither here nor there for the moment.

Obama is the president.  As president, he has an obligation to attend treaty signings, welcome heads of state to the US, present the US at official functions involving other heads of state, and, of course, attending funerals of notables, both foreign and domestic.

It is incumbent upon the president, regardless of how he feels about any individual, to show the office’s respect for senior government individuals who have died, whether in the performance of their duties, or after the retirement of those individuals.  Obama, as president, should feel a requirement to attend the funeral of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, a sitting Supreme Court judge, who passed away unexpectedly.  Yes, Obama can show his respects by going to see the justice lying in state, however, Obama is also, because he is the Executive of the US, obliged to attend the funeral.  Obama should have made sure that this information was promulgated.

Obama not attending the funeral of someone who interpreted the Constitution for thirty years is an insult, not just to the Supreme Court of The United States.  Obama’s not attending is also an insult, and a slap in the face, of the people of the United States, whom the Supreme Court serves.  By not going to the funeral, Obama says that he feels that the Supreme Court, and the justices who sit on the bench of the highest court of the land, are not equal in stature to whatever else he attends on that day.  As such, Obama attempts to elevate the office of the executive above the offices of both the Supreme Court and the Congress.

Mr. Obama, the constitutional scholar, attend this: The Founding Fathers established the Congress, the Supreme Court, and the Executive branches as co-equal.  Thus, the justices are equal in stature to your position.  The United States is not a Constitutional Monarchy, with you sitting upon a throne.  The United States is Representative Republic, and the judiciary and the legislative  branches have the authority to remove you from office.  Ergo, as president, it is your responsibility to attend the funeral of someone who is venerated among lawyers and justices throughout the land.  To do anything else, to not attend, shows your pettiness, a pettiness not becoming the position of the president of the most powerful country in the world.

“We Must All Stand Together, Or, Most Assuredly, We Shall All Swing Separate…”