A Failed Presidency?

Isn't it interesting that less than a month into President Obama's term that some people are already calling it a failed presidency?

Barack Obama is learning the hard way that it's one thing to win an election, but another thing to actually govern. As even some of his less rabid supporters are saying, his inexperience in actually having to perform the job he was elected to do is showing through.

It is nothing less than extraordinary that, less than a month into the presidency of Barack Obama, the warnings are flying that it has embarked on a course of actions that are a danger to the nation and to the world.

...Kathleen Parker, a columnist for The Washington Post, was lamenting President Obama’s lack of experience and, more importantly, his lack of maturity. “Obama wants too much to be liked…but there’s a price in becoming president. Giving up being liked is the ultimate public sacrifice.” George W. Bush can confirm the truth of that.

While being a popular President might be nice, it isn't guaranteed by any means. Sometimes a President will have to make decisions that will not be popular with the electorate. He or she had better be ready to take the heat for those decisions. It goes with the job. But the more I have watched, the more I have seen that maintaining popularity is apparently Obama's primary focus. If that is indeed the case, then he will become far too focused on the polls rather than taking care of the nation's business. That is a recipe for failure and will lead to more problems for the American people, and especially for the economy.

While many people claim that Barack Obama is a wonderful president, there's nothing I've seen to date that indicates this to be so. While he has experience getting elected, he has no experience actually governing. Even his two years in the US Senate show a record of “not much here” to brag about. Some of his first acts as President show the lack of experience, the lack of understanding of things outside his immediate presence.

...Obama has issued a flurry of executive orders including shutting down Gitmo, but not determining what we do with a bunch of fanatic, stone killers, some of whom have been released and went right back to al Qaeda. Not satisfied with that, he authorized the spending of $20.3 million in immigration assistance to Palestinian refugees—calling them victims—who want to leave Gaza and bring their hatred here.

His first call to a “head of state” was to Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the Fatah Party. Abbas is not a head of state and Fatah exists only at the pleasure of Israel who needs to appear to be negotiating something other than its own destruction. His first television interview was with Al Arabia. The Iranian response was to demand that he apologize for the “past crimes” of the U.S.

He has ordered all overseas CIA interrogation centers closed and then withdrew all charges against the mastermind behind the bombing of the USS Cole. Do you feel any safer now?

His actions may become examples of how the Law of Unintended Consequences can play a bigger role than the actions that triggered it.

The President speaks well, makes broad sweeping statements and promises, but to this day hasn't told us how he will achieve all he's promised. That's not leadership. It's salesmanship. To quote an old advertising maxim related in the linked post, “Sell the sizzle, not the steak.” And that is what Obama has been doing – selling sizzle, not steak. That's all his promises and 'plans' to turn America around happen to be. Unless he can deliver he will end up being a one term president.

Another thing that bothers me to no end is the repeated phenomenon of disappearing promises and speeches, particularly those on his website. To paraphrase Dan over at Riehl World View, “Obama's running for the memory hole.” But one thing the President has forgotten what so many others have learned the hard way is that the web, and particularly the blogosphere, never forgets. The days of being able to sweep past actions and words under the rug are long gone. His own words will come back to haunt him.

It's now up to Obama to fill the role he was elected to fill. The problem is he's following his old pattern – make some speeches, get elected, make some more speeches, and then vote 'Present'.

This is one office where he can't get away with that.