The first time I watched this, I thought it was just Obama trying to fudge his way out of a difficult question, the way people tend to spin the “what’s your biggest weakness?” answer during job interviews. (Nobody’s buying that claim you’re “sometimes too much of a team player.”)
But after watching a second time, I’m now wondering whether Obama actually believes his own fables. His political team is notoriously insular, and the cult of personality surrounding him would tell him that his biggest problem is he just hasn’t explained his policies to the American people well enough, goshdarnit. The scary news is Obama may truly be as out-of-touch as he appears in this CBS News interview:
“When I think about what we’ve done well and what we haven’t done well,” the president said, “the mistake of my first term – couple of years – was thinking that this job was just about getting the policy right. And that’s important. But the nature of this office is also to tell a story to the American people that gives them a sense of unity and purpose and optimism, especially during tough times.”
Mr. Obama acknowledged the dissonance between others’ perception of his strength as an expert orator, and his own.
“It’s funny – when I ran, everybody said, well he can give a good speech but can he actually manage the job?” he said. “And in my first two years, I think the notion was, ‘Well, he’s been juggling and managing a lot of stuff, but where’s the story that tells us where he’s going?’ And I think that was a legitimate criticism.”
When did anybody ever criticize Obama for being a great policy wizard who just didn’t spend enough effort communicating his accomplishments to the American people? Can you name one serious pundit who has made this argument? (The White House cheering section at Think Progress and the New York Times editorial page don’t count.) If anything, Obama’s critics — the ones who rightly pointed out that cliche-riddled speeches don’t translate into good governance — have hammered him for a lack of leadership on policy issues. Even Obama’s legislative victories were based on policy drafted by congressional Democrats, not the White House. His budget plans have been voted down unanimously for the last two years by members of his own party in Congress.
And the notion that Obama hasn’t spent enough effort communicating his ideas to the American people is fantasy. This is a president who’s never missed an opportunity to give a speech. The problem is the lack of substance and follow-through. If this is really the Obama campaign’s assessment of its candidate’s weaknesses, then they have much bigger problems than previously thought.
What you call "lack of policy leadership" is what I would call being a lousy, lousy politician, completely unable to get a legislative coalition together to pass any legislation since the 2010 elections. His policy stances seem to be ideological, making the kind of compromises he would need to make to get Republican votes almost impossible to obtain. Lousy manager, Lousy politician, failed policies.
I thought his problem was that Americans are inherently racist. If we could only overlook his skin color, we would realize how brilliant of a policy wonk he truly is…
You write that the editors of the New York Times and TPM don't count, but that's a mistake, they do. They create the cocoon in which the President resides. No doubt he thinks "Well Paul Krugman likes my policies, so I must be right." n nHe could resort to the trope we see occasionally in the media that liberals are at a political disadvantage because they deal in facts and reason as opposed to appealing to emotions like conservatives do. But that would be too obviously insulting. He'd be saying, "Americans are too stupid to appreciate my great work." n nInstead he resorts to "I'd be successful if I were better at communicating my goals." It's the equivalent of "It's not you, it's me." It gives him a veneer of faux humility to hide behind.
Soccerdhg has hit on some good points, bravo! The cacoon is all too real for those who live in it and provide them with emotional support that they are right. Paul Krugman is a wonderful cheerleader for those whose policies he likes. And, Krugman carries weight as a professor of economics, a columnist, and lest we forget, a Nobel prize winner to boot. With him in Obama's corner, Obama is a champion. Who has similar credentials to say otherwise? n nAlso, the point of false humility is spot-on. Our president is anything but humble. However, he can give a good go at presenting himself as reasonable, likeable, all the while showing such false humility. It's a great act, and one we've seen before. While many of us are tired of it, and see it for the sham it is, others who want to believe, make themselves believe. It is to these voters that he's playing. n nIs Alana right that Mr. Obama genuinely believes what he said in the interview? Who can say for sure, but I think Mr. Obama believes his own propaganda. In a sense, he has to believe. To have his record and realize what a disaster it has been is to realize just how poor a leader one is. The president cannot believe himself incompetent. It just goes against what he wants, what he hears (yes, his people are ever supportive), and what he must believe to go on. n nHere's one added point. In the clip, Mr. Obama refers to the presidency as a job. It is that. But the president is so much more than a job for four years. It's a position of leadership for our country, a role model for other Americans, a center of power for the country and for the world. Our president is someone for whom our service men and women pay the ultimate price. We civilians could pay such a price for poor decisions that open us to needless hostilities and attacks, by the way. To refer to it as a job is to minimize something that is so much more. For this point alone, Mr. Obama is degrading that which the American people gave him. It almost hurts to hear the presidency referred to as just a job. n nIt's time to let him seek other employment, if he can find another job. n
Why thank you!
Alana could not be more correct in her comment here. The man has done nothing but make speeches one after the other and I would hardly call him a policy wonk/wizard since he cannot get his own party to pass any of his outrageous budgets or even some of his most favored jobs bills. The man is living on another planet and he is, once again, blaming his problems on his message defects. His problem is not that his message is wrong, it is that HIS POLICIES ARE SO VERY, VERY WRONG.
Good points, it's not the bad messaging , "the dogs do NOT like the dog food"!( to quote one pundit).
These are the sentences in the article that struck me: "This is a president who's never missed an opportunity to give a speech. The problem is the lack of substance and follow-through." n nLike didn't he give a well-received speech (following Congresswoman Giffords being shot) on heated political rhetoric — but did he ever say another word about it, especially concerning the hate-filled jibes/lies of Pelosi and Reid? In fact isn't Obama one of the nastiest critics of his political opponents (excuse me, his "enemies")?
He's the kind of man who can't tell the truth; in other words, a born politician. n nSome people just fear the truth. That's our president. He's more grifter than leader. The truth can lead to other truths, which can unravel a whole lifetime's worth of lies. Better to give yourself the wiggle room of a lie, if you're this kind of a man. n nHe's just such a smooth talker that a lie sounds as real as the truth coming from his lips.