Obama has shown repeatedly a lack of leadership qualities and skills, making it easy for people, even those who voted for him, to conclude that he is a failed president. by Joel S. Hirschhorn
(libertarian)
Monday, December 6, 2010
Americans have a knack for electing awful, incompetent politicians. Those who voted for Barack Obama should be feeling justified guilt, regret, anger and disappointment. Most of us have known people with terrific academic credentials who, nevertheless, are jerks, incompetent at many things, dishonest, and disappointing role models. After President George W. Bush much of the nation was eager to embrace an articulate, seemingly intelligent and self-proclaimed change agent. They made a mistake by thinking that Obama with his slick rhetoric would make a good and perhaps a great president. He has not been the president we were waiting for.
The profound and painful truth about Obama is that he has no genuine, effective leadership qualities or skills at a time when the nation desperately needs strong, courageous leadership that rises about narrow partisan interests. He has proven that a politician can make a successful candidate but fail once he wins and must govern. Not one of his speeches as president has been as good as several ones he gave as a candidate. He has not inspired, not brought Americans together, not risen above narrow partisan interests, not communicated exactly what is wrong with the nation and exactly what the government must do to advance everyone's interests while staying within the constitutional parameters and traditions of the republic.
Obama has utterly failed in presenting to the nation all Americans a serious, detailed, courageous plan to rebuild the United States in every respect, not just its economy and jobs, but also every major rotting element of society.
In particular, consider these leadership failings:
After it was clear that the nation experienced a historic economic meltdown he did nothing meaningful to identify and prosecute the many greedy people in the mortgage, financial, banking and whole Wall Street system that clearly were responsible for harming millions of Americans. He made a mockery of the justice system. Americans had a right to see the guilty punished, when so many of them were made to suffer. All this made Obama seem like just another corrupt politician serving the interests of the rich and powerful, especially when he shoved billions of dollars into the hands of the guilty.
Despite putting so much emphasis on fixing the national health care system, he failed to courageously and steadfastly pursue what was really needed: a single payer option that would allow Americans to escape the clutches of the private health insurance industry, something like letting all Americans access the Medicare program. A strong majority of the nation favored the public option initially. This too made Obama seem like he lacked the courage to fight the oppression of a powerful industry.
Even though the nation was receptive to ending both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, especially in light of the dire economic conditions in the homeland, Obama displayed a complete lack of foresight and courage in ending them. Rather than nation building at a cost of trillions of dollars in far off countries, the US urgently needed nation building at home. Local and state governments are in terrible shape, as is our infrastructure and education system. Yet billions of dollars that must be borrowed, adding to the enormous national debt are being spent every month on corrupt foreign governments.
The distortion of the US economy producing outrageous economic inequality as the rich steadily has taken a larger and larger fraction of the nation's income and wealth while the middle class sinks into a lower class never received the policy priority and leadership warranted. Economic inequality is greater in the US than in any other industrialized nation. Obama has never truly shown himself as a leader protecting the vast majority of Americans. He looks like an elitist because he acts like an elitist. He is not a populist or president of all the people. The rise of the Tea Party was a valid consequence of his failed leadership to fix a corrupt, dysfunctional and inefficient government system and economy. He deliberately caused voters to believe he would change the evil ways of Washington, DC. He has not done so.
As I write this, there is enormous attention to the issue of extending the Bush tax rates or letting them go higher in 2011. What has received far too little attention by the media and the public is that Obama and the Democrat controlled Congress let a long time go by without pushing legislation to extend the rates for the middle class. Now, after losing the midterm elections, they have let Republicans play politics (actually blackmail) with the aim of keeping rates low for the richest Americans. The only thing worse than inept Democrats in Congress has been a bungling Obama White House.
In a time of crisis, a president with great leadership skills must, with clarity, communicate a set of values and goals that makes easy sense, unites Americans, and lays the groundwork for a detailed national revitalization strategy. The principled-president must then be seen as fighting vigorously for his values and goals. Few see Obama as this.
Obama will not only go down in history as the first black American president, but even more importantly as a failed president at a time when a wrong-track nation needed great leadership. Unless a viable Democrat or a strong Republican challenges him for the presidency he may, sadly, win a second term. But I strongly believe that unemployment will remain very high for years to come, thus reducing his reelection chances greatly.
Did you like this article? If you did, Thumb It! 8
thumbs so far
The views expressed
in this article are those of Joel S. Hirschhorn only and
do not represent the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates.
Joel S. Hirschhorn is solely responsible for the contents
of this article and is not an employee or otherwise affiliated
with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
