Associated Press refers to Obama as “healer-in-chief”

Sigh (bolded emphasis added by me):

Obama going to Missouri to offer help in healing

WASHINGTON (AP) β€” President Barack Obama is pivoting from diplomacy on the world stage to the intimate and delicate domestic task of acting as healer-in-chief to a devastated community.

The president travels to tornado-wrecked Joplin, Mo., on Sunday, a day after returning from a six-day European tour of Ireland, England, France and Poland.

After days of focusing on the U.S. relationship with the rest of the world, he’ll turn to an even more critical connection: his own, with the American people.

The president will visit with survivors and family members of the worst tornado in decades, a monster storm that tore through Joplin a week ago leaving more than 130 dead and hundreds more injured. About 100 others are unaccounted for, and the damage is massive.

The president will tour destroyed neighborhoods in the city of 50,000 in southwestern Missouri, and speak at a memorial service being held by local clergy and Gov. Jay Nixon for those who lost their lives. He’ll offer federal assistance, and his own condolences.

[…]

Though times of trouble can erase politics and unite people, a phenomenon Obama has commented on, his task as healer Sunday will be carried out on unfriendly political ground as his re-election campaign approaches. Obama narrowly lost Missouri to Republican John McCain in 2008, but in Jasper County, where Joplin is located, McCain won by a large margin: 66 percent to 33 percent.

I just Tweeted to the AP to please stop referring to President Obama as a “healer”:

Dear @AP: Pls stop referring to Obama as “healer-in-chief”. God heals. Presidents don’t.

If you have a Twitter account and are as disturbed by this description of a President as a “healer”, would you Tweet them as well to (respectfully) let them know how you feel? Or if you prefer, you can find numerous other ways to contact them via this page.

It’s not just Obama that I would prefer they not call a “healer” – it applies to any US President. Of course, it’s no secret that Obama views himself as a healer, going back to when he was running for President, so the issue here with him is to not give him any more reason to believe he actually is. But in general, talking about anyone who will sit in the big chair in the future: When people in those kinds of positions of power get the mistaken idea – whether unprompted or not – that they can actually “heal” a nation, we’re in trouble. You don’t even need to be devoutly religous to understand this.

Kentucky flyer for Obama
No. (Photo circa fall 2008)

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