When he isn't winning, Obama turns to whining
By: Chris Stirewalt
Political Editor
July 23, 2009
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| President Barack Obama speaks on health care reform in the Rose Garden at the White House, Tuesday, July 21, 2009, in Washington. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds) |
It seems that Americans are a little tired of Barack Obama, and the feeling may be mutual.
Believing they had elected a postmodern medicine man for the Oprah era, voters are recoiling from Obama's attempt to become a PG-13 version of Lyndon Johnson.
His poll numbers have slid mostly because people are suffering economically. Obama promised to heal their pain and failed. He may yet succeed, but for now, disillusionment hangs like a pea-soup fog over the land.
In France, they call Nicolas Sarkozy the "omnipresident" because he is seemingly everywhere doing everything at once.
Obama is more of the commenter in chief, with something to say about everything from Michael Jackson's death to derivatives markets to parenting. But his quotidian commentary diffuses the force of his words.
An army of czars march forward through finance and industry, massive plans for reordering American life flow out of the White House, and Afghanistan boils. Yet Obama continues to behave as if these things are not his doing, that he is just another one of us looking for a solution.
In April, Obama delivered a speech with pretensions of writing his own chapter in progressive presidential history: "The New Foundation." Not as solid sounding as the New Deal or as optimistic as the New Frontier, but it at least sounded comforting in an age of uncertainty.
But what are the tenets of the New Foundation? Who knows?
Rather than pressing a bold agenda, Obama has picked up and set down one bauble after another.
Accordingly, Congress hasn't developed any fear of him. Democrats like to claim a slice of credit for his historic rise to power and still bask in the last golden rays of his ascension, but seem content to ignore him as much as they can politely.
Sensing the restlessness, his advisers have steered him into this culminating battle over health care. Detractors see Obama as Napoleon at Waterloo. The White House sees him as Henry V at Agincourt -- the callow youth who finds his inner warrior on St. Crispin's Day.
Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and his team believe some kind of victory can be wrung from Congress this year. And no matter how small, it can be claimed as the moment at which Obama turned the corner from good to great. We saw the effort on the president's cap-and-trade bill. A laughable imitation of the president's plan eked out a win and the champagne popped in the West Wing.
To reach the health goal, the White House holds the same kind of closed-door sessions that once prompted Obama to scold Hillary Clinton (Remember how we would have the meetings on C-SPAN?). But while the sausage is getting made with insurance companies, Prince Hal is giving soliloquy after soliloquy about health care.
And the tedium of his constant talking is grating on Americans, disturbing their peace and quiet as they try to ride out the bad economy.
Hearing some of the hours of presidential palaver on health care, I start to feel like an intelligence officer listening to intercepted phone calls. I'm hoping to find something useful or revealing in a long stream of banalities.
Occasionally, there is a snippet worth hearing.
In one of many network interviews last week, Obama told CBS how he changed his mind on forcing everyone to buy health insurance, the legislative pot of gold for the insurance industry:
"My general attitude was, the reason people don't have health insurance is not because they don't want it, but because they can't afford it. And if you make it affordable, then they will come. I've been persuaded that there are enough young, uninsured people who are cheap to cover, but are opting out."
There's that same tinkling bell of resentment for Americans who aren't as worthy of him as Obama once thought.
And in his complaints about how mean Republicans are, how slow folks have been to embrace his change, and how hard everything is as president, Obama risks adding whining to his existing sin of overexposure.
Being president is sort of like being a Navy SEAL.
Everyone knows it's a hard job when they sign up for it, but there are still hundreds who aspire to the position. That's why those who get picked don't usually complain about the rigors of their duty.
Obama needs to suit up and get on with his job.
Chris Stirewalt is the political editor of The Washington Examiner. He can be reached at cstirewalt@dcexaminer.com.
