Submitted to a Candid World
Barack Obama
Chemistry, Timing, and the Transformative Presidency
Certainly without knowing it, President Obama, in this pre-inaugural picture plucked from the New York Times, manages to pull off a fair impression of the famous classical statue, the Augustus of the Primaporta, matching almost perfectly the second Caesar’s raised arm, held either to indicate a more prosperous future and recovery from Rome’s century of civil wars, or to address his gathered legions moments before a great victory. It depends on who you ask. But in either case, it’s a promise the administration has, by and large, failed to live up to. We can play the blame game another time — I for one continue to blame a Republican party more interested in killing the Democratic resurgence, embodied in Obama, than in running the country — but we’ve had a hand in it too. We haven’t fought when we should have, we’ve fought when we should’ve kept quiet, and overall blanched from the Total War the administration so obviously faced as early as January 21, 2009. Where did we go wrong? To start, let’s rewind to 2008. Maybe it should’ve been Hillary.
Let’s assume — correctly, I think — that there was little policy difference between Hillary and Obama, except possibly as to Iraq. Instead, the choice between Hillary and Obama reduced to a choice of visions for the country. With Hillary, we had a proven fighter, someone who could stand toe-to-toe with the ideological violence of the Bush-era Republican Party. Choosing her would commit us to another eight years of fighting the culture wars, but probably a victory. With Obama, instead, we had the promise of the beginning of a national healing period. Time after time, Obama shrugged off the divisive rhetoric his opponents hurled at him, and always seemed capable to draw us back to our common denominators. Choosing him, it seemed, gave us a fair shot at national unity, consensus politics, and an end to the hyperpartisanship, brinksmanship, and overall reduction of American values that characterized the Bush years.
Like so many, I opted for the latter vision. This was a mistake, but a well-intentioned one. I never expected, nor thought the post-Bush Republican Party capable of, an actual net increase in partisanship. It’s the rare faction that gets handed a crippling loss, and decides the solution is to radicalize. But that’s the opposition we received — as was evident pretty early on — and Obama was not the right President to fight that war. Nor has he truly endeavored to become that type of President. He’s stuck by Bush’s quickly-abandoned goal of being a “uniter, not a divider,” with some exceptions, and if that’s what we need eventually, it’s not what we need now. Though we may never know, a President Hillary Clinton might have understood that.
Like relationships, presidencies are part chemistry, and part timing. Chemistry — here used in the individual sense — our current President has no shortage of. He’s an important, even singular individual, a presidential character if there ever was one. But the Republicans’ dangerous game has functioned to strand him an era not of his own making, nor suited to his strengths, and Obama and the Democrats alike have consistently failed to adapt. America desperately needs a transformative President; but more urgently, we need a soldier to fight the war to get us to a place where we’re ready for a transformation. I suspect the great majority of Americans are already there, but their leaders, at least on one side of the aisle, are not. And until those leaders are absolutely and completely crushed, we’ll never have peace. Octavian had to kill Antony before he could become Augustus.
“The Best Lack All Conviction…”
President Obama’s question-and-answer session, following his speech at the University of Maryland, sets out a fairly effective counter-narrative to the Republican approach to this most recent budget-hostage situation. If you’ve missed it, here are some points worth hearing, and repeating, because Lord knows, the “liberal media” won’t cover it themselves.
First, extremism is a personal issue — the result of voters putting themselves in an echo chamber — but it’s also an election law issue. When we deliberately draw “safe” districts, we encourage members to run as far left, or as far right as possible, but then, when they get to Washington, they have nothing to say to each other. Democracy should foster the middle.
Second, we must reject the notion a dichotomy between public spending, and private spending. One affects the other. Obama’s example bears retelling: according to the CEO of Southwest Airlines, upgrading America’s air traffic control system would save all major airlines 15% off the bottom line, savings which would (we hope) see reinvestment in new hiring. I realize we now view infrastructure as “socialism,” but maybe that’s off-base.
President Obama’s Origin Story, and the Power of the Personal Narrative
When John McCain’s presidential campaign released the “Celebrity” ad — which attempted to equate candidate Obama with Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, by dint of nothing more than the Senator’s popularity — we knew that the rational, bipartisan John McCain, the one who truly would put “country first” and in some part deserved the presidency, was dead and gone. In his place stood a shrilly partisan operation, convinced that victory could be won by stacking gimmick upon gimmick in a vain attempt to distract the electorate from the obvious failures of Republican policies. (This trend, naturally, would culminate in Sarah Palin.)
Now, the same charge is back, but as an excuse for the lackluster Republican field, and an explanation for Obama’s likely re-election. Per The Wall Street Journal, if Obama wins, it’s because of the myth — and celebrity — but not the man.
I don’t dispute that President Obama’s personal life presents a compelling, relatable, important, and quintessentially American story. But what’s most important is that Obama uses his past to inform his politics. Other candidates, like Tim Pawlenty, actually have similar rags-to-riches upbringings, but make no attempt to relate their rags-to-riches tale to their policies. Instead, Pawlenty’s past seems to contradict his present and future, and denies the very “social exceptionalism” that the author admits her party needs. Here is a party that “believes in you,” as we hear, but leverages the same as an excuse to let you go your own way, pull out the social safety net, and rely on lines discredited by Bruce Hornsby songs should you fail (“Just for fun he says… get a job!”).
Oh, but don’t you believe them. What works for President Obama is that his story matches with a compelling vision for you. Here’s a man who emerged from a tough beginning against all odds, and doesn’t believe you need to face the same odds. That’s a powerful message, because it results from the knowledge that living the American dream is very, very hard, unless we look out for each other. Not to over-indulge in music this post, but we must bear our neighbors’ burdens within reason, and our labors will be borne when all is done. Don’t carry it all!
Obama’s struggles taught him that compassion, and it comes through. Pawlenty’s life taught him… what, exactly? When a Republican can answer that question, he’ll do well. Until then, we can suffer through the Wall Street Journal’s overwrought explanations of the party’s failures, but this will be the extent of the Republican Party’s relevance. This I swear to all.
* * *
Oh, and you know what? The author’s treatment of McCain’s decision to ignore the President’s middle name goes completely amiss. It wasn’t cowardice, and it wasn’t political correctness. It was class, a word we may have forgotten. But what would you expect from an author who, in the very next breath, attributes Trump’s meteoric rise, and meteoric fall, to his insightfulness?
“Bill, Man, I Know Football”
From an interview that otherwise, too, reinforces the President’s normalness, against a discourse that does its damnedest to make him into something alien.
They’ll Like Us When We Win
A non-trivial bounce following the Democratic Congress’ late-term passage of the compromise tax plan, New START, and the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell repeal.
As succinct a statement of political momentum as you’ll ever find. Sometimes, just accomplishing something is enough.
Imaginary Assassins
I missed this earlier, but another of Glenn Beck’s Saturday stunts rips from the classic annals of demagoguery:
Making a show of fear for one’s own safety dramatically conjures the specter of enemies, even if they don’t actually exist. This was, again, a stunt used to great effect by Augustus after he assumed sole mastery of Rome. When minting new Senators, to underscore the still-fresh memory of his adopted father’s death at the Body’s hands, and (by some interpretations) keep anger at the Senate alive, thus deferring the Republic’s restoration, the princeps conspicuously wore mail under his tunic, carried a sword, and was followed by bodyguards. See Suetonius, De Vita Caesarium, “Divi Augustus,” XXXV. That the demure father of his fatherland could still fear for his safety, after all the good he’d done, made the point better than any actual assassin could.
Similarly, Beck’s decision to flaunt his bulletproof vest speaks to paranoia and persecution but omits any reasonable basis to believe it, or a credible threat, exists. The classier — but riskier move — is to trust. One searches history in vain for any record of Obama, or any American president, wearing a bulletproof vest. Rumors that 44 wore a suit laced with bulletproof cloth are just that, and underscore rather than refute the point.
Obama, America’s Most Successful Modern Counterterror President, “Wins the Morning”
When Politico starts to note what might’ve gone wrong, it’s best to remember what didn’t — in two consecutive terrorist incidents, now, despite initial setbacks, local authorities have foiled terror plots and caught their man, with the help of federal officials. And in the first case, despite being washed through the “liberal” criminal justice system, and contrary to seemingly willful disinformation throughout the media, the lawfully interrogated perpetrator provided actionable intelligence both before and after receiving his Miranda warnings. That’s two big successes — both accomplished without significantly compromising civil rights.
Comparatively, President George W. Bush presided over the largest terror attack in American history, and might fairly be considered negligent in his handling of the matter, before and after the attack. Critically, despite continually eroding Americans’ civil rights for security’s sake, Bush still failed to catch his man, and never made significant arrests on American soil. No, suspects detained, tortured, and later freed as innocent emphatically do not count.
For equality’s sake, it’s also widely acknowledged that President Bill Clinton probably missed a prime opportunity to catch Osama Bin Laden, before we ever knew just how dangerous he was, due most likely to an overly technical, cumbersome reading of FISA.
Admittedly, much of a President’s success in counterterror depends on luck, or the men and women on the ground in local law enforcement. But if we’re going to start unfairly blaming Obama for things that didn’t happen, we might as well unfairly credit him for the same.
“…If He Will List His Public Engagements for Today.”
Or, "He shall, from time to time..."
For the record, I’ve been calling for a “Question Time for the President” in this country since long before it was cool — and so has Senator John McCain (R-AZ). Surprisingly, despite a left eager to showcase our litigator President, and a right somehow convinced that, “one fine morning,” they’ll be able to catch him, the proposal to institute a regular “question time” has drawn some objections, among them a fear that routinizing the process would kill its magic; that it would somehow equate the President with the Queen of England (fallacy somewhere, I fancy); that it would diminish the majesty of our august legislative chambers; and finally, that it would be unconstitutional.
None of these really make much sense. Like, at all. In order, now: concerns about whether a routine question time wouldn’t be “spontaneous” enough goes to its one-time political utility for the winner, which is pointedly not the reason to implement it. Question time isn’t about the “head of state”; it’s about the executive branch meeting the legislative (in the U.K., every minister has “Question Time,” at least every two weeks). The once-august image of our legislative chambers already stands quite tarnished — if it ever looked that great to begin with. And apart from a few specific obligations, the Constitution is quite silent about what the President can do with his time, and when and how he can meet with the legislature. The State of the Union clause is a floor, not a ceiling,
He shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient (U.S. Const., Art. II, § 3, cl. 1)
Like Holmes’ dog barking in the night, any statement of the regularity with which this ritual should occur is conspicuous for its absence.
Having met these spurious objections, let’s return to the reasons to institute a form of “question time.” First, it’s easy. The President need only make himself available; legislation would only encumber the ritual, and if the concern is continuity between Presidents, that’s no matter. These things have a way of ingraining themselves into political culture: once started, it won’t readily be stopped without raising a few eyebrows. Second, it is the very definition of transparency. Negotiations between the President and Congress, today, go on behind closed doors. Obama can and should change that in other ways, but exposing at least one aspect of the executive/legislative relationship to the public represents a compelling first step. Third, and perhaps most importantly, it cuts the media out of the debate between President and Congress. Both the internet and cable television have conspired to produce such a multitude of niche programming, that it’s all too easy to insulate oneself from controversy in all matters political. The lack of visible — and watchable — clash between political actors enforces this trend, and a popular political forum focused on each side scoring points off each other, and where spin can be called out as such, would go a long way to solving the problem.
No Post
Just watch. All of it.
Like the Bartlet/Richie debate, there’s no need for further commentary. It wouldn’t be tasteful.
Oh, okay, one comment. When I say we need Prime Minister’s Questions in this country — this is why. A true statesman will stand out for his ability to punch through the politics of distraction, as Obama did yesterday.
