Is McDonald's in the Obama camp?

Have you noticed, it's as though McDonald's is trying to follow the sports bar trend of filling any vacant wall space with a flat-screen television? True, the fast-food giant hasn't quite gotten to the point of absurdity found in many of the trendy dining and drinking establishments, but McDonald's is on its way. The McDonald's in my home town has two large screens facing into the dining area. It's difficult to find a place to sit where you won't see the screens.

One difference, of course, is programming. Instead of ESPN, ESPN2, a NASCAR channel and a fishing channel, McDonald's runs CNN or its clone-like counterpart - HLN. Whether CNN or HLN, these two channels have, as I see it, one thing in common - they are bastions of the PC world and staunch supporters of the Obama administration. Frankly, I would have thought, based on one of the restaurant chain's obvious market demographics, that McDonald's might work out a deal with The Disney Channel. Of course, that's overtly PC, as well, and, for my money, solidly in Obama's hip pocket.

On Friday, most of us heard the disappointing employment figures; unemployment jumped back up to 9.1 percent (counting those who are still actively seeking jobs). Then, today, I read that those figures released Friday reflected a significant level of hiring by McDonald's. In fact, fully half of those hired last month are now asking, "Can I take your order while wearing some form of McDonald's orange uniform.

When I pose such a question as this, I always like to point out that I'm not presenting smoking-gun evidence. I don't have a copy of the memo from McDonald's to Timothy (tax fraud) Geithner. But, I believe that patterns speak louder than words. The deeper the pattern the more likely the scenario it suggests. Considering, I've concluded that there is a possibility that McDonald's is doing its part to help the Obama administration.

Certainly, the economy has more people dining at McDonald's. However, consider that, if memory serves me correctly, McDonald's was the first company to receive a waiver from Obamacare. Add that to their choice of programming and a wildly high level of hiring and the possibility that they are trying to make the Obama administration look good is apparent.

Maybe McDonald's is just trying to say, "Thank you for the waiver, Mr. President." Maybe McDonald's is another extraordinarily large company that feels comfortable if the free-market music stops playing - they know they have a place at the table for the new socialist playlist. Or, maybe, they're completely innocent and it's all in my head. But, at the very least, the question is worth asking.