I watched highlights this morning of President Obama’s remarks at the White House Correspondents Dinner.

Here was the 44th president of the United States making fun of some of the crackpot conspiracies about his birth, his citizenship, his faith and whether he was qualified to even hold the office to which he was elected.

Then something struck me. What has happened to the moronic allegations about all those things? They’ve dried up. Gone away. Disappeared into the darkness. Vanished from the face of the planet.

How can that be? Oh, might it be that Barack Obama’s re-election has made the conspiracy loons’ statements irrelevant? I’m thinking that’s the case.

Obama was quite funny last night. He said he wasn’t “The Muslim socialist I used to be.” He said he is working hard on his presidential library, but wants to be sure it is built in this country and not “in the country of my birth.” There were some other one-liners, so you get the point.

My own point here is that the absence of any of that kind of political bullcorn today suggests it was the stuff of nut cases with too much time to waste. The Obama family will leave the White House on Jan. 20, 2017. With that bit of inevitability awaiting them, the birthers can turn their attention to another bit of political lunacy.

I’ve been away for a couple of days, visiting with my sister and her husband in Albuquerque, N.M.

We caravaned over there with them, actually. They’re finishing up a long road trip and they are on their way home to the Pacific Northwest after spending a few days with us in Amarillo. But here’s what I discovered in Albuquerque: The New Mexico Department of Transportation knows how to dress up a freeway interchange. The folks who run the Texas Department of Transportation’s division headquarters in Amarillo ought to take a drive over there and see for themselves how to make an interchange aesthetically pleasing to passersby.

The “Big I,” as the locals call it, is where Interstates 40 and 25 intersect. One young hotel employee told us that it’s called the Big I because the interstate routes end up at the country’s northern and southern borders, and at both oceans. Hence, it’s the Big I. My wife and I drove through the Big I a few times shortly after our arrival in the Panhandle while it was still under construction.

But it got done. Now it provides a reasonably safe commute through Albuquerque.

Here, though, is where it stands out: The landscape décor is outstanding. It features plenty of rocks, native plants (such as several types of cacti), and a paint scheme that looks similar to what TxDOT did when it rebuilt the I-40/27 interchange in Amarillo.

However, the Amarillo interchange landscaping, shall we say, leaves plenty to be desired. Aw, heck, I’ll just say it: It looks hideous.

I know this has been a sore subject with some of my fellow Amarillo neighbors. One of them is a friend of mine, Roger Cox, a lawyer who’s griped publicly about the lack of a finishing touch done to the interchange. He has made an important point, which is that the interchange often is seen only one time by motorists passing through the city. Why not, Roger has asked, make it pleasing to the eye, given that they might not pass this way again?

I agree with my friend.

And after driving through the Big I several times this weekend I have seen how these kinds of construction projects can help sell a city.

I could not have been prouder of President Barack Obama than I was today.

Twice he stood before crowds to pay tribute first to his immediate predecessor – whose economic policies he has blamed for much of the difficulty during his first term in office – and then down the highway a bit at Baylor University to honor the memory of those who died in the fiery explosion in nearby West.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/25/17912435-america-needs-towns-like-west-obama-thanks-texas-fallen-at-memorial?lite

The president’s remarks at the dedication of the George W. Bush Library and Museum were spot on in their appropriateness. He honored the 43rd president by saluting his courage and his steadfast belief in whatever position he took. President Bush and the three other ex-presidents – Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush – all took their turns at the podium to honor W’s library dedication.

It was a day to set aside partisan differences, which isn’t exactly an easy task in these contentious times.

Then the president ventured to Waco and honored the memories of those who died in that horrifying fertilizer blast. It killed 14 people, 12 of whom were first responders, such as volunteer firefighters. “America needs town like West,” Obama declared and vowed that the country will not forsake the community as it seeks to rebuild itself.

This is the president as consoler in chief. And Barack Obama is getting quite good at fulfilling this tragic, but necessary, role.

I’ll admit right here that I’m a sucker for certain types of pageantry.

One of those types involves the gathering of one of the world’s most exclusive organizations: the Former U.S. Presidents Club.

The four living ex-presidents, along with the current president, are gathering today in Dallas to commemorate the opening of the George W. Bush library and museum on the campus of Southern Methodist University, the alma mater of Laura Bush, the former president’s better half.

Former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton (both Democrats) are joining former Presidents George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush (both Republicans, father and son) to mark the occasion. They’ll be accompanied by yet another Democrat, President Barack Obama.

As Laura Bush said this morning on National Public Radio, one of this country’s great symbolic traits is how these individuals can gather – even in the midst of a contentious political atmosphere – to take special note of a historical moment.

Ex-presidents all have gathered for the opening of the Clinton library, the George H.W. Bush library and the Carter library. These men all share a unique bond in that they’ve sat at the center of power, leading the world’s most powerful nation.

And they’ll meet once again to mark the occasion of another president’s library and museum.

For one day at least, the nation can put aside the difference that divide it.

What’s wrong with that?

I agree totally with Paul Burka’s assessment of Gov. Rick Perry’s effort to cover his own backside in the wake of the West, Texas fertilizer plant explosion.

http://www.texasmonthly.com/burka-blog/perrys-response-west#.UXgNuV0k5qo.twitter

Perry said that more state inspections of the plant wouldn’t have prevented the explosion that killed 14 people and injured dozens more. Burka asks a simple question: Just how does the governor know that?

It seems to me the governor is lapsing back into his less-government-is-better-government mantra, which is kind of the tea party theme in states across the nation.

Gov. Perry needs to start asking some difficult questions about this tragedy and stop relying on CYA platitudes that fail to get to the root of anything.

President and Mrs. Obama are going to visit the region Thursday to pay their respects for the victims of the blast. I’d give anything to be a fly on the wall when Gov. Perry and President Obama meet to discuss this matter. I’m wondering if he’ll tell the president to instruct federal agencies to butt out of efforts to repair the lives shattered by that horrific blast.

I thought my ears were plugged up the other day when I heard about Sen. Rand Paul’s comments regarding the use of drones in the hunt for the Boston Marathon bombing suspects.

The Kentucky Republicans said he would have favored deploying the drones to find the Tsarnaev brothers. My first reaction was, “What the … ? Did this guy just filibuster the nomination for CIA director John Brennan because he wanted the administration to promise never to use drones in the United States – against U.S. citizens?”

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/04/23/rand-paul-faces-blowback-after-new-drone-comments/?hpt=hp_bn3

That’s what he said, over and over and over again … for 13 hours during his filibuster on the floor of the Senate.

He finally got a pledge from Attorney General Eric Holder that the U.S. wouldn’t use the unmanned aircraft. It was then that he ended his filibuster.

Now Paul says the government should have used the drones to hunt down the brothers who are believed to killed those people along the marathon route.

Granted, he didn’t say anything specific about firing missiles from the drones to kill the men? He just wanted to use them as surveillance tools, I reckon.

Paul has denied he has changed his views on drones. I’m not so sure this isn’t a serious policy reversal. Isn’t this guy supposed to be a straight-shooter who ran for the Senate vowing to be true to his tea party/libertarian convictions?

Max Baucus stunned the political world the other day by announcing he’s going to retire from the U.S. Senate after the 2014 election.

The Montana Democrat’s seat is now among the many others that Republicans think they have a chance of snatching away from the majority party.

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/max-baucus-bitter-feuds-with-democrats-90533.html?hp=t2_3

Why the retirement? Why now? It appears his vote in the Senate the other day against a bill that would expand background checks for those who want to buy firearms has made him – so to speak – a target for those on his party’s left.

Thus, we’re now seeing the Democratic ideologues finding common ground with the ideologues in the Republican Party. Neither ideological extreme can much handle those who wish to work with those on the other side.

This isn’t good for representative democracy, ladies and gents.

I’ve been watching with some amusement as Republicans started singling out GOP officeholders in party primaries. The most famous result occurred this past year when GOP Sen. Dick Lugar of Indiana lost his party primary to tea party nut case Richard Mourdock, who went on to lose the 2012 general election to a Democrat after he remarked stupidly that a pregnancy that results from a rape is “God’s will.”

I’m now watching the Democrats threatening to do the same thing to one of their own. Baucus is the third-most senior member of the Senate. He’s long been a key player in budget matters. Then he cast a vote against background checks, which an estimated 90 percent of all Americans favor. His vote seems to have enraged the base of his party.

Now he’s soon to be gone.

The Senate is about to lose another voice of reason.

I remain hopeful that the 2013 Texas Legislature will enact a statewide ban on texting while driving and that Gov. Rick Perry will sign the bill into law.

He’s threatening another veto, contending that a statewide texting ban intrudes too deeply on individuals’ behavior. He vetoed a bill that came out of the 2011 Legislature and says he hasn’t changed his mind since that time.

But here’s the question that some folks are asking: Given that the state requires everyone in a car to wear a seatbelt and given that failure to do so puts the people in that vehicle at risk of serious injury or death in case of an accident, why doesn’t the same standard apply to people who text while driving their motor vehicle? What’s more, given also that the seat belt law is intended to protect only those individuals in a particular vehicle, doesn’t a texting ban protect other motorists as well as the offending motorist from serious bodily harm?

Amarillo already bans texting and operating handheld cellphones while driving. I’m glad the city has acted on its own. The city ordinance will stand even if Perry vetoes a texting ban law should it arrive at his desk.

But it’s high time the state acts on the inherent dangers associated with this incredibly stupid behavior.

I’m still hoping.

Presidents of the United States wear many hats: commander in chief, chief executive of the government, head of state, head of government and, yes, mourner in chief.

President and Mrs. Obama are traveling Thursday to Baylor University in Waco to attend a memorial service honoring the victims of the fertilizer plant blast this past week in nearby West, Texas, that killed 14 people and injured many more.

http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/04/21/4791152/memorial-service-set-for-first.html

President Obama is “good” at these kinds of events, just as President Bush had to do the same after 9/11 and after the Columbia shuttle tragedy, and as President Clinton had to do after the Oklahoma City bombing and as President Reagan did after the shuttle Challenger explosion.

This is what presidents must do. They don’t wish it on themselves or on any of those who will succeed them. They ought to look at the way their predecessors handled such crises, learn from them and take a bit of that advice with them as they perform this essential task of leadership.

Barack Obama noted the other day that “This has been a tough week,” in describing the events that occurred during the Boston Marathon and its immediate aftermath, as well as the tragedy that tore apart the tiny town of West.

A nation looks often to its elected leaders for comfort in times of pain. The president has been forced by events to offer a healthy dose of it. That’s why we pay him the big bucks.

I’m waiting anxiously to hear if any members of Congress, those who comprise the tea party wing of the Republican Party, gnash their teeth over whether to send federal assistance – in the form of money – to West, Texas, the town ravaged by that horrific fertilizer plant explosion this past week.

It was the other great tragedy that fell on a nation that was riveted mostly on Boston and the manhunt for the two men suspected of that hideous act of terror. As President Obama said, “This has been a tough week.”

But out here in West, 14 people were killed, many more were injured and even more were made homeless by that ghastly explosion. The mushroom cloud rising over the town near Waco could be seen in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, nearly 100 miles away.

Take a look at these pictures.

http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/04/21/4791152/memorial-service-set-for-first.html

But we’ve witnessed some odd resistance to rushing federal aid to communities hit by disaster. Joplin, Mo., was all but leveled by a tornado in 2011 and some congressional hotshots – such as House Republican Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia – balked at sending aid to Joplin until Congress could cut spending in other programs to pay for it. Then came the ridiculous resistance to sending aid to victims of Hurricane/Super Storm Sandy that pummeled New Jersey and New York in 2012; again, the resistance came mostly from the tea party faithful.

Texas has just elected another tea party favorite to the Senate, Republican Ted Cruz, who joins fellow Republican John Cornyn in Congress’s upper chamber. This is just a hunch, but I’m betting they won’t resist federal help if and when it is offered.

President Obama took note of the West disaster while thanking law enforcement for the fine job it did in apprehending the surviving suspect in the Boston bombing. “I’ve spoken to Gov. (Rick) Perry,” Obama said in assuring Texans that the federal government won’t forget the suffering being felt at this moment in that tiny community.

My advice to Sens. Cruz and Cornyn would be for them tell their tea party allies on Capitol Hill to keep their traps shut when the time comes to send federal aid to Texas.