MY TURN: President has terrible image

I love my president and am so thankful for many of the things he has done and is trying to accomplish.

With that said, I do care about the image. He needs to study Eisenhower and Reagan and their image and perception even by political opponents and certainly the world. Not always seeking the limelight, they surrounded themselves with excellent people and let them do their work.

He has become a paper tiger when it comes to Russia. After the worst attack on Ukraine in the war he said he's "disappointed?" And then he says he's going to levy more sanctions?

Russia just responded saying "they have no effect whatsoever" and "are absolutely useless." (This was under a picture of Putin smiling more broadly than I've ever seen him!)

The other concern is for his personal and presidential image.  

He is an attention hog (I'm sorry). The U.S. Open just concluded. He was greeted with a mixture of boos and applause. Because of the increased security the whole event had to be delayed. Please, Mr. President, stay home and watch it on TV.

Interestingly the Spaniard who won handily was very gracious in his remarks about playing in front of the president — although it's reported that Mr. Trump never clapped once for him even after he won. Now the liberal media is saying our president was jealous of him and all the attention he was receiving. SAD.

One more thing comes to mind on the issue of Ukraine.

I've heard it said by at least a few that Russia attacked Ukraine "because of Ukraine's corruption." That view is nearly hilarious. Should we attack Mexico? We don't even attack Cuba or Venezuela!

In checking with the corruption levels of all nations in the world, which is officially published every year, I see that, zero meaning no corruption, Scandinavian countries generally score the lowest numbers; U.S. is in the 30s; Ukraine is about 100 (varies a bit from year to year); AND Russia is consistently in the 150s! Go figure.

Also, Ukraine has shown an improvement trend while Russia has shown the opposite …

Interestingly Putin in his recent comments did not mention corruption per se as his reason for starting the war. He did, however, say that one cause was the "DeNAZIfication of Ukraine" — Hello? He still can't get over what Hitler did, or at least tried to do, to Putin's "Evil Empire" so long ago.  

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Jim Korver is a Coeur d'Alene resident.