With the GOP nomination process a mess and fringe candidates still popular with the GOP base but likely less popular with mainstream voters, one would think that Barack Obama would be busy solidifying his base and acting presidential. Instead, we continue to see whining and finger pointing coming from the White House when the finger ought to be pointing to the image of Obama looking at himself in the mirror. Yes, he inherited a huge mess, but his leadership style - better described as an absence of leadership - has played a huge role in the current status
quo and has, in my view, enabled the GOP obstructionist policy. Yet, Obama still doesn't seem to get the message and it's to the point of doubting that he ever will. A piece in
The Daily Beast evaluates
Obama's continued marginalization of himself. While there are true limits to a president's power, I disagree with the article's premise that the office of the presidency cannot be used more to rally the troops if you will. All we seem to see is cold water thrown on dashed hopes. Here are some highlights:
It comes out of the mouths of President Obama and his aides like a mantra: The president can’t work miracles. One man can’t do it all. Don’t expect change overnight.
[T]he messianic figure, who promised to lead the country out of the darkness of Bush’s imperial presidency, has kept stressing his weakness.
It’s striking to contrast this incessant declaration of relative powerlessness with FDR, who had to call a press conference at one point—after accusations that he tried to pack the Supreme Court—in order to promise the country that “A. I have no inclination to be a dictator. B. I have none of the qualifications which would make me a successful dictator.”
Obama’s by-now characteristically paternal reminder of reality is yet another instance of what is becoming his presidency’s comi-tragic flaw. There is a constant disjunction between political tact and political candor. The country needs to believe it is guided by a firm hand that is confident it will prevail and bring victory. Yet Obama keeps firmly and confidently declaring that he cannot prevail all by himself, and that victory is not at all certain.
by now, the failures—the humiliations by the opposition, the broken promises, Obama’s withdrawals and aloofness—have seemed so constant that, in lieu of concrete advances, some more sober version of the high expectations of yore might lift morale.
Obama has been drawing down expectations and calling on the American people to help him since before he was elected president. He is absolutely right about the limitations of his office. But accuracy is not the same thing as truth. The truth is that the buck really does stop with him. The “people” have their limitations, too.
With the GOP nomination process a mess and fringe candidates still popular with the GOP base but likely less popular with mainstream voters, one would think that Barack Obama would be busy solidifying his base and acting presidential. Instead, we continue to see whining and finger pointing coming from the White House when the finger ought to be pointing to the image of Obama looking at himself in the mirror. Yes, he inherited a huge mess, but his leadership style - better described as an absence of leadership - has played a huge role in the current status quo and has, in my view, enabled the GOP obstructionist policy. Yet, Obama still doesn't seem to get the message and it's to the point of doubting that he ever will. A piece in The Daily Beast evaluates Obama's continued marginalization of himself. While there are true limits to a president's power, I disagree with the article's premise that the office of the presidency cannot be used more to rally the troops if you will. All we seem to see is cold water thrown on dashed hopes. Here are some highlights:
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