Obama, get on that picket line

There have been many labor disputes in the early months of 2011. While the debate between unions and governments has raged across the nation, the Midwest has been at the forefront of the discussion.

Most notably, Republicans Gov. John Kasich of Ohio and Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin have gained notoriety for enacting legislation in their respective states limiting the union rights of public employees.

Indiana has fallen privy to the fever, losing nearly five weeks of the legislative session to a holdout centered upon labor issues.

Even the National Football League is currently under a lockout caused by the end of their collective bargaining agreement.

As nearly everyone has weighed in on labor issues from closed shops to collective bargaining, however, the only person who has seemingly not taken a firm stance is President Obama.

Obama’s relative indifference compared to the rest of the nation is surprising. Since bursting onto the political scene as a hot-shot senator from Illinois, Obama has always been a proponent of labor unions. In fact, his pro-union stances were a large part of his platform and his presidential appeal among progressives.

On November 3, 2007, while campaigning in Spartanburg, S.C., Obama famously declared, “If American workers are denied their right to organize and collectively bargain while I am in the White House, I’ll put on a comfortable pair of shoes myself. I’ll walk on that picket line with you as President of the United States of America.”

Well, Obama has yet to make good on that promise. For that matter, except for a couple of rather tepid interviews and press conferences on the subject, the president really has yet to made any move at all.

Maybe Obama’s trepidation stems from the looming re-election campaign. However, if that’s the case, the president shouldn’t be isolating himself from Big Labor, one of his biggest and most adamant supporters.

Regardless, it’s time for the president to put on his tennis shoes and take a stand.

Frankly, he was elected to be a leader of the free world and not a spectator of it.

For once, it’d be nice to have a politician hold true to his campaign promises and ideals, and that’s a change we can all believe in.