Don't Be Too Political When It Comes To The White House

Lech Walesa:

Electrician
Union leader
Nobel Prize winner
President of Poland
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
Did you know that the government of Poland wanted it's national hero, Lech Walesa, to receive the Medal of Freedom for the late Jan Karski at a White House ceremony on Tuesday?  The White House refused, saying he was "too political." For those who don't remember, Walesa and his Solidarity movement freed Poland from the grip of Soviet communism in 1989. At the same ceremony, Barack Obama hung the Medal of Freedom around the neck of Delores Huerta, a labor organizer and the honorary chair of the Democratic Socialists of America.

Rory Cooper, writing for National Review Online, had this comment about the circumstances:

So socialist politics are acceptable, but not the politics of a man who stood up and fought socialism.

The likelihood is that President Obama didn’t want Walesa in the White House because Walesa has made critical remarks toward the president’s policies and in 2010 warned that the United States was slipping toward socialism. But rather than taking the mature and diplomatic path and respecting Walesa’s right to have a differing perspective, Obama chose to shun his lifetime of achievements.

Read the rest of Cooper's remarks here. What a sorry state of affairs.