Forget Bachmann! Where's Obama?

[Guest fountainhall]

What has happened to President Obama and where is he? I believed this man, with his passion and his determination to change Washington - has everyone forgotten "Yes, we can!" and the powerful effect it had on voters? Yet, it is a different figure I now see in the White House.

 

Let’s accept that he took over the presidency during arguably the worst crisis facing any President since Roosevelt and make the necessary allowances for that. For two years he enjoyed absolute majorities in both Houses of Congress. And what did he and his bickering party do? Not much that I can make out. They rushed through important bills only after the mid-term elections showed that the Democrats had lost the majority in Congress Nothing concrete was achieved in many of the areas he talked about during the election – as far as I can see. What happened to the rebuilding of the nation’s infrastructure, or the development of green energy, etc? Some of the additional costs of the healthcare bill could have covered some of that, and put a lot of people to work. Now that bill itself, no matter how necessary and worthwhile, is under enormous scrutiny and would appear to be holding back, to some extent, the creation of jobs.

 

At a time when not only the USA but also the world is crying out for leadership and direction, when unemployment has improved hardy one iota during his presidency, when the Arab Spring is totally rewriting the future of one of the vital regions of the world and forcing the reevaluation of alliances (whither Israel, one is tempted to ask - a country which is now experiencing its own street protests?), when the leadership in North Korea is changing and its use of nuclear weapons hangs as a heavy possibility in this part of the world, when Europe is in an economic quagmire, Japan remains in an achingly long 20+ year stagnation, and even China is fighting hard to tame inflation and so likely to reduce its ability to gobble up the world’s exports at the same rate as before – surely at a time like this Obama should be out there showing that he is fighting the hardest battle of his life and rallying his troops around him?

 

Yet, the man is on holiday. Sure, everyone deserves a holiday – and let’s not forget that George W. Bush took vastly more of these than any other recent President, even as he gave away the massive surplus that Clinton had left behind and spent untold billions in starting a war his cohorts lied about to make happen. But if I saw that my home was burning, I’d be right there as close as the firefighters would allow. President Obama? He's on vacation! I'd also be after the guy who lit the match, if there were one. The ghastly financial turmoil the world is now in was created under George W Bush's watch. George W Bush built up the national debt to unimaginable heights. Why are the Democrats and their President not screaming this to the rafters night after night after night? Instead, those Tea Party mad hatters hog the airwaves and almost weep about Democrats overspending! Will someone please WAKE UP?

 

I truly like the guy and believe he should make a good President. But something is missing. For one, he has lost his uncanny ability to communicate. The fire is missing. It seems now that he wants all the world to see his gravitas, his understanding of his massive responsibilities and that he is taking the necessary time to grapple with them and come up with solutions to those admittedly horrendous problems. Trouble is, the problems remain and the solutions aren’t working.

 

The essence of good communication is twofold. Speaking from the heart is not one - being seen to speak from the heart is! Secondly, look your listener in the eye. People have got to feel Obama knows their problems and that he is the guy to solve them. But ever since he moved in to the White House, Obama has seemed uncomfortable talking from notes. Almost everything he says is a speech. And these speeches, even the least important ones, make use of that gin-trap for most (other than seasoned professional television hosts) – the auto-cue. Before you pooh-pooh that suggestion, think for a moment. You are at a media event in the White House, the seat of all power, telling the nation something important. Your near-invisible auto-cue readers are on your left and your right – not in the middle. So you address those to your left and those to your right – but rarely look straight at the camera. And you then start to concentrate too much on the words themselves (Jeez, I wish that auto-cue operator would just speed up a bit!) than on the sense and the passion behind them. To me, that has made his public speeches – for the most part – flat, over-factual, lacking in his former passion, and often just plain dull.

 

I truly wish the guy would lighten up a bit and start looking straight into the camera lens. Sell the autocue and donate the money to the Libyan rebels. Speak directly to the nation and the world. Hillary is far better at this, as was her husband. Or learn to be a better actor! At least, DO something, because the world needs a strong leader exhibiting forceful leadership at this very difficult time. And, please Mr. President, forget about holidays until you start achieving results!

[TotallyOz]

I could not agree more. I voted for him (after Hillary dropped out) and had high hopes. He is a major disappointment and I'm not sure I can vote for him again. If the Republican party were smart (they are not, they are idiots and will nominate someone the Tea Party loves) I would happily consider voting for a moderate. But, that ain't going to happen. The system is USA is screwed up and the one I hoped would fixed it turned out to be more trouble than he was worth.

 

I wish him great luck but he is loosing his liberal base (me included).

[Gaybutton]

There is only one man - one true statesman - the man destined to lead the USA out of this mess:

 

[Guest]

Yet, the man is on holiday.

 

Politicians do less damage when they are on holiday. Much of the legislation they pass is really badly thought out and often involves wasting more of our money. Well that's how it is in Europe and from over here, the USA looks the same.

[Rogie]

For two years he enjoyed absolute majorities in both Houses of Congress. And what did he and his bickering party do?

I don't follow American politics closely but that aspect definitely comes across, the intra and inter-party bickering on a wholesale scale.

 

Mind you, we have the same problem in Britain. Alistair Darling, the Chancellor in the last Labour government, has just published his memoirs. His relationship with the Prime Minister Gordon Brown (who took over from Tony Blair) was rather turbulent. Darling has some brutal things to say about his boss . . .

 

Brown's dysfunctional style of government has already been documented in the memoirs of Tony Blair, Alastair Campell and Peter Mandelson, but is now laid out in detail by Darling. It's a story of tiny, hastily-called caucus meetings, often minus the cabinet ministers most affected; endlessly postponed decisions, selective leaking and occasional volcanic confrontations. Unless all these accounts are wrong, it was government by dither and growl. How could it have gone on so long?

 

Things were made worse by Labour's lengthy war between Blairite and Brownite tribes. Both had retreated into little Downing Street and Treasury cliques, loyal cabals. Though Brown talked a good game about ending sofa government and returning to cabinet government, and may have believed it, by then the tight huddle of loyal believers was a habit too hard to resist.

 

Darling's memoirs make clear just how damaging this was for Labour and the country. Had disagreements about the seriousness of the recession, or about the balance between tax rises and spending cuts, been aired through proper cabinet committee (and full cabinet) debates, there would have been leaks, no doubt; but there would have been a more coherent, defensible policy at the end of it. Organisational chaos produced policy chaos.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/sep/04/dangers-big-man-politics-business

 

The essence of good communication is twofold. Speaking from the heart is not one - being seen to speak from the heart is! Secondly, look your listener in the eye.

I haven't been watching Obama much, so I was interested to read your analysis Fountainhall. I see Michael (an American citizen) in in agreement with what you wrote, albeit sadly. I am sure if I were an American I'd feel the same.

 

Wasn't Reagan sometimes referred to as The Great Communicator?

 

The ability to communicate is vital. Obama has that ability, but seems to have lost it, rather it's got submerged. I suspect the guy is in turmoil, he must be all keyed-up. If only he could relax and find his inner self (I am sure there are plenty of American self-help gurus who'd rush in to offer their services, given the chance) and find some way of boosting his confidence, he ought to be able to start recovering some lost ground. Once he gets his confidence, and authority back, he can only get stronger. Every nation love a strong leader, but he has yet to demonstrate what he is surely capable of.

[Bob]

He is a major disappointment and I'm not sure I can vote for him again.

 

I can understand the frustration and we do tend to blame the President for whatever happens with the economy (whether or not he is significantly to blame for it). But what's the alternative? Vote for Perry or Bachmann or Romney? I can't stoop that low.

[TotallyOz]

I can understand the frustration and we do tend to blame the President for whatever happens with the economy (whether or not he is significantly to blame for it). But what's the alternative? Vote for Perry or Bachmann or Romney? I can't stoop that low.

 

Neither can I!

 

But, I am more frustrated that he hasn't lived up to the changes he promised. He is just like the rest of them. He was elected by the young people who thought he would fight. He doesn't know how to fight. He lays down for the Republicans to fuck him in the ass. He is a bottom pussy boy with no balls.

 

I would vote for him if he were running against Bachmann or Perry. But, if Romney wins, I just may keep out of the election and not vote at all (a first since I was 18).

 

I love politics and I have voted for both parties over the years in different elections. But, I simply just can't stand pulling the lever for Obama. That being, said, I may have to suck it up and learn to get fucked like he has.

[Guest fountainhall]

I suppose he might just get lucky, like Clinton at the end of his first term. When Gingrich and the Republican Revolution took over Congress in the mid-term elections, he hogged the limelight and it looked for a while that Clinton was a dead duck. Clinton, though, was a wily politician with finely-honed political antennae. He took them on, let them close down the government, modified his policies, played them at their own game and won a 2nd term.

 

Even though I am not American, I feel that if Obama doesn't start doing something really fast, it looks like he's in for an uphill struggle.