He Is Not A Leader
I would have thought that people might have figured it out by now, but I was apparently wrong. Barack Obama is by training and inclination a mediator, not a leader. He doesn’t propose policies, he negotiates between parties. You can’t mediate if you advocate anything, so he doesn’t.
He doesn’t have a health care policy or agenda, he wants to find a program from what is proposed in Congress. His basic persona was revealed in the Gates episode. He brought people together and acted as a referee.
Israel and North Korea have figured this out, so maybe it is time for the American people to understand, that he will not change anything without external pressure. All change must be the result of dialog between opposing groups. He will not act without a decision being made on a “compromise” by others.
He has absolutely no executive experience. He has never bucked “conventional wisdom”. He has no vision as to what he wants to accomplish in office.
Only three and a half years until he’s gone.
10 comments
Sad to say, his replacement is likely to be a Republican who continues taking the United States into Mexico North status as a failed state that’s good only for the very, very rich. I wish I could say the words “President Dennis Kucinich”, but I never will, the system simply won’t allow such a thing…
– Badtux the On-the-train-to-national-hell Penguin
.-= last blog ..Still alive =-.
There is always the chance that someone will notice how the Dems are tanking and try to do something to apply a tourniquet, but it won’t be any of the fools in the White House. Rahm has been putting his money on the wrong horses for years and is responsible for most of the Blue Dogs in Congress.
I would vote for Kuchinich, or anyone else who was an actual liberal, but I have no use for the “leadership” of the Democratic Party.
There is no telling what the Repubs will run in 2012, but I doubt they are a viable national party at this point. This started as an era of Dems majorities but they are well on their way to screwing that up.
Alas, Mrs. Palin could never generate the corporate backing required to become a candidate for national office. They won’t believe she will stay bought. Corporations require extended service before they will accept a politician.
No, he’s definitely not a leader. He’s a tool.
Shall we put him on Tool Academy? 😉
You know what, Bryan? I would not blow off Sarah Palin like that.
No one thought Obama was a major contender at first, either. Of course, he did not do asshole things in the Palin vein. But nothing surprises me any more.
Moi, Palin’s problem is money. She isn’t plugged into the corporate funding sources that are needed for a national run. She can win in Republican primaries, but without money, she can’t even run in those primaries. There are a lot of Alaskan Republicans who hate her, and they control the money and the access to the funding she would need for a credible showing.
She’s a great retail campaigner, as she proved in Alaska, but she can’t pull together the cash to fund a national campaign.
I am disappointed in the Democrats. I can’t say I’m disappointed in Obama because he is doing what I expected he would do. He is an excellent speaker and lecturer. Leader… not so much.
There is always Hope ™ that some of the party will come to their senses. But I’m not holding my breath.
.-= last blog ..Bzzzzzzzzzzz =-.
You can give people the facts, Lady Min, but you can’t make them accept them. Obama is exactly what I thought he was in January of 2007 based on his record and votes, and he has done absolutely nothing that hasn’t confirmed my original estimation of him as a moderate to conservative Republican. like Nelson Rockefeller.
There are a lot of Rockefeller Republicans with Ds after their name in DC.
There are a lot of Rockefeller Republicans with Ds after their name in DC.
Indeed. Because the GOP is now the party of batshit crazy Christianists, conspiracy theorists, and racists, the business-oriented Republicans have largely fled to the Democratic party out of sheer horror at the thought of being associated with that freak show. But they are still basically conservative business Republicans at heart.
People who thought Obama would be the second coming of FDR simply do not understand black middle class culture. I’ve had extensive contacts in the black community in the past due to working at three different black schools (black principals, majority black teachers) in two different school districts, and have never met any group of people as conservative as the black middle class. People are quick to point at Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton as models of what the black middle class, but Jesse and Al are not typical of modern black professionals. Bill Cosby (famous for shouting at younger blacks, “pull up your pants and act like human beings!”) is probably closer to what modern black professionals look and feel like. They have managed to succeed in the American system via some very old-fashioned virtues for the most part — education, hard work, etc. — and by not taking extraordinary risks, and they are fundamentally conservative at their very core. Taking risks, proposing doing things in a radically different manner, radicalism in general, is not part of their mental makeup. It just isn’t how they work.
As for Palin: I disagree, Bryan. The modern Internet has made fund raising radically different. Obama raised basically as much money as Al Gore raised via traditional methods, but raised double that amount via the Internet. Palin is tapped into a deep vein of loony right web sites and organizations capable of hustling money and support to her in prodigious amounts without the support of traditional right-wing fund raising. In my opinion the only reason she is not going to be a viable candidate is because of the way she left Alaska — as a quitter under a cloud of corruption charges. If not for that… I shudder at the thought, but President Palin could have very much been a possibility in 2012, given the way Obama is failing to lead.
_ Badtux the Politics Penguin
We have had pretty much the same experience with the black middle and upper classes, Badtux. They are conservative, and definitely are not risk takers. Most are well educated from educated families, and feel that those who fail aren’t working hard enough. I’ve been on boards with them, and watched them in the faculty senate at a college, and they definitely are not in the liberal camp.
I don’t think she has the staff to take advantage of the ‘Net, or to run a major campaign. She needs a solid advisor and I don’t think she takes advice with any grace. We’ll probably see, because the GOP doesn’t have much of a bench for a national run. It seems like every time one of them is thrust into the spotlight they have a meltdown.