Disenchantment With Obama
God, I wish I had waited another two days before writing the last blog post. I could’ve included the scandal of the day, the Rolling Stone article about General Stanley McChrystal. Seriously. It’s like there is no unified PR effort anywhere. And holy GOD, what General gives an interview to the Rolling Stone and things that dropping the f-bomb or calling Biden “Bite me,” AREN’T going to make it into the article? The gist of the article, regardless, was that McChrystal is pissed off at the White House for vacillating over the war or for pulling political moves. And really, he’s not the only one any more.
Just a week ago, Jon Stewart did a bit comparing Obama to Frodo from Lord of the Rings, thinking he could control the power given to him but becoming consumed by it while being chased by a power-grubbing obsessive who wanted to take the power back from him – Cut to Sarah Palin as Gollum. You lose Cronkite, you lose middle America, you lose Stewart, you lose the left and the youth. Yikes.
So what happened? I’m not going to pull the bullshit left-wing move of blaming Obama’s failures on the obstruction of the Republicans (which has been absurd to the extreme; a year and a half into his administration, they are still filibustering his cabinet), but rather to the typical complaints of the constituents to their politicians: you promised more than you could deliver.
And let’s set aside a few things first: The economy wasn’t caused by Obama, and, like the health care bill, his policies were watered down by compromise. You can’t really blame him for that. Anything that has to go through legislative bodies is going to be twisted and altered beyond what the President might want, but it isn’t the President’s job to legislate. That is all beside the point.
Where he failed was in returning the moral high ground to American standing in the world. He proved that he’s a brilliant orator, but not so much in implementing his policies. He authorized the assassination of an American citizen – Anwar al-Awlaki, a terrorist organizer, yes, but still sharply reminiscent of the Bush Wild West style of governance – and he has yet to follow through on the closing of Guantanamo. He’s a little bit more transparent Bush, but not by much, and his policies in Afghanistan seem to be motivated more by an LBJ-esque desire to show that he is tough on his enemies, rather than by more practical measures (you want to win over the Afghans? Stop the drone attacks.). He really hasn’t taken the moral high ground that he touted as a candidate.
Which might not be surprising. Presidents are forced to make impossible decisions all of the time, and really, they pretty much have to become rational utilitarians rather than idealists. And Obama always had that rational side to him. Maybe the problem is systemic rather than with Obama.
As far as the right goes… well, I think “disenchantment” implies that you were once “enchanted,” so there really isn’t any change there. The right has had its ups and downs in opposing Obama, often irrational, often justified, but now it seems to have blown its momentum load a little bit early. The reason is because rather than an anti-Obama movement, it got tangled up as a pro-Republican, pro-business movement. Enter the oil spill. Good-bye.
I still think Obama will win in 2012, regardless of probable losses in 2010. There just aren’t any reasonable candidates on the right yet. Maybe Jindal. But the race card is tougher to overcome in the Republican party than it is in the Democratic party. Regardless, Obama should buckle down and tighten his strategy to one less based on hope and one based more on results. Results which he doesn’t quite have yet.
What rational side—must have missed it. Do agree with who in their right mind spills the beans to a left winger from Rolling Stone. Hope to God you’re wrong—want that man out of the Whitehouse. Many of his buds too. Now if we could get rid of a few rich people supporting him.