Issue #69
Last Update October 31, 2010
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National Obama's Psyche by Gerry Krownstein June 2, 2010 Some of the discontent with President Obama's handling of the important issues of the day (health care, the economy, the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the two wars, various issues of Presidential power vs individual rights, and others) is unjustified; given the number of crises he inherited and the intransigence of the Republican opposition which seems to be putting partisan interests ahead of the interests of the nation. He is probably doing as well as anyone could in the situation. But in achieving what he has inarguably achieved, he has made some of his natural allies very uneasy.
The unease comes partly from style, and partly from substance. Inherently a moderate progressive, Obama has disappointed his more liberal constituency on several issues: the slowness of his withdrawal from Iraq, his escalation of the war in Afghanistan (and its expansion into Pakistan), and his refusal to fight for even the public option in healthcare, much less a full-fledged expansion of medicare for all. These are all symptoms of his middle of the road view of life and politics. Two things are much more disturbing to those who had great hopes for his presidency: his acceptance and expansion of the George W. Bush view of the powers of the Presidency, and his tendency to let situations drift almost out of control, and then, at the last moment, exert the kind of vigor and leadership needed to save the situation. The fear is that one day he will leave it until too late, and a political (or national) disaster will ensue.
The current offshore drilling crisis is a case in point. Some weeks ago, Obama laid out his energy policy, which, while focused on moving the US out of oil dependency, nevertheless called for an expansion of nuclear power and offshore drilling. A reversal of his previous stance, the call for new drilling off the Gulf of Mexico, the southern East coast and in Alaska took many of his supporters by surprise. The most charitable thing that can be said about this policy statement if that, once again, Obama was removing a chance for Republicans to enmesh energy legislation in fights over extraneous issues by preempting their positions on some of these issues, enabling a concentration on what could be viewed as the main thrust, the expansion of alternative energy sources. If Obama had stuck to his earlier position on offshore drilling, he would look like a hero today. Instead, by giving in on this issue to prevent a fight that would derail the rest of his proposals, he acquired ownership of the offshore drilling mess. It is now very much his problem, not just to solve, but to justify.
This is compounded by his apparent passivity after the event. While there has been no “Heck of job, Brownie” moment, there has also been no inspiring leadership. There may be good reasons for leaving the solution of the problem in the hands of the company that caused it, but to the general public it has seemed as if the Federal Government has let BP get away with lies, inefficiency and obfuscation, instead of the government taking matters out of BP’s hands and fixing the problem. Obama has, this time, left it until too late in the game to exercise visible leadership, and will suffer for it politically.
The President must tackle his psychological problems if he is to be successful in leading the US out of the many messes it is in. He must give up the fantasy of a reasoned dialog with the opposition party and play hardball. Some Republicans will vote with him if he is a winner. No Republicans will risk it if he is an appeaser. He must also take the lead early for each issue. Laying back and letting Congressional leaders take the heat until he rides in to save the day late in the game has worked, to a degree, but as the Gulf debacle has shown, it is demoralizing to the public and inefficient politics, besides. If Obama can’t change his style and strategy to eliminate these psychological deadweights, he and the country will suffer.
New York Stringer is published by NYStringer.com. For all communications, contact David Katz, Editor and Publisher, at david@nystringer.com