Well, we've looked at a couple cyclical models of presidential leadership, Skowronek's and Hargrove & Nelson's. They're not identical, but both give the impression that Obama's inheritance problem-wise (an economy off the cliff, two wars, a fiscal mess, the BP mess, a Supreme Court's muscular exericise of "judicial activism" in _Citizen's United_, etc, etc.) is countered by a fortuitous piece of timing: following W's failed policies as either a non-fit ala Hargrove-Nelson or a failed late-regime affliliate ala Skowronek, he could well have taken the rhetorical battering ram to the philosophical foundation of the "Reagan regime" (i.e., government sucks!).
But for whatever reason, he chose not to do so. Instead, he sought to play nice by extending the hand of bipartisan cooperation to a Republican party who has consistently rejected it. Not simply refusing to play, but playing like playground bullies bent on destroying and delegitimizing the President. DeMint's hold on all policy initiatives, noted by Megan in her comment, is unprecedented in the degree to which it has cast the president as an alient, illegitimate "pretender to the throne" of the Presidency.
The question I have is this: what is the President's understanding of "politics"? Is it so naive that he'll continue to get beat up by bone heads insisting he's "not one of us?" I'm not saying he should produce a birth certificate, but you can bet that the House will hold hearings in 2011 on his citizenship. The President owns the Bully Pulpit, but he seems to be too timid to voice a visceral view that insists we are better than this, that history will judge our reluctance to address the problems before us as utterly irresponsible, with particular disdain for the leadership of the Republican party who has remained strangely silent about the craziness from the likes of O'Donnell, Angell, DeMint, Beck, and Palin. Expressing modulated aggression is not a sign of weakness; failure to do so when you've been treated with unprecedented disrespect is.
Thoughts?
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Obama has had opportunity after opportunity to at least stand up and say "I'm a Democrat, those of you that don't like it, tough. We will procede without you." For some reason he does not do that. Respect is a two-way street so why he continues to give respect to the Republican's baffles me. I honestly think it is going to take a mid-term election like the Clinton administration faced in 1994 before Obama will have the "Ahah" moment. If that will even do it. But until he does we are going to have a lot frustrated people continuing to target him. And as for the Republican party remaining silent about the Palins, etc, I think they are probably seeing that as a great strategy. Because they know Obama won't take the metaphorical swing back at them.
ReplyDeleteI think Obama is being too idealistic in a time when partisan politics is dominating. Part of his campaign was based on his idea of bipartisan cooperation, but when the situation changed and republicans took actions to criticize him instead of working with him, Obama needed to step up. Even if it goes against what he visualizes, right now he needs to get off the bench and into the game. If he doesn't, he may be in for a long two years in office.
ReplyDeleteAlso, in response to discussion in class today about investing in China...The way I take it is the Chinese are working against us economically by not letting their currency appreciate like it was susposed to, making Chinese goods more appealing to consumers instead of American ones. If we went ahead and invested in their economy, wouldn't we be advocating current practices and in a way working against our own economic growth?
I can only imagine that The Administration has a lot to comment on politics today. I, however, think its more about The Administration over analyzing what the political response would be to their hypothetical active politicizing. "It might be good to say that but on the other hand what if it doesn't result in something positive for us. In effect, paralyzing The Administration. This is only a theory, but well worth speculating.
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