Leadership requires rewarding your supporters and punishing your detractors. He doesn't do that.
Leaders understand that there are a whole bunch of folks out circling, waiting to knock the leader off the pedestal and take his/her place ... even if in come-up-man-ship only, like a star on a sports team challenging the coach or manager, and getting away with it.
Obama, apparently, has always been mentored into his next higher position ... because he is a great campaigner. He fits the mold of the charismatic politician, and like every other media star does not have to be anything other than out of prison in real life. He is the person others put forward as their "man".
He's never DONE anything except fulfill assignments from others and win elections.
Health care reform is a prime example. First, he has not driven a stake in the heart of rising health care costs by doubling down on any plan that would. And doubling down means having the "chips" to make his opponents pay to stay in the game AND using them. He doesn't have the chips BECAUSE he doesn't think he needs them ... and if he had them, there is no indication that he knows how or when to use them!
Obama gives a good speech. He doesn't know how to knock heads. In fact he never will. It's too late in his career path to learn how, and his choice of financial gurus boxes him out from trying. Geithner, Summers, and Bernake are the foxes for the financial services industry in our hen house. I don't see how it could be worse ... because if the coming crash came faster (in response to those saying the slowing of the spiral downward is a good thing) we maybe then would have the political will to change. As it is, we are descending into Banana Republic status with the financial services elite sucking up the wealth by printing paper instruments of debt ... is there anything nuttier than that?!
Republicans hope - and Democrats fear - that a politically significant percentage of voters will come to see the federal government under Democratic control as redistributing tax dollars to "elites" and to the very poor, as the broad middle class is left on its own to face high unemployment, sharply reduced home values, and gutted retirement savings.And — IMHO — whenever we haven't had a president with the interests of we the people and the nation at heart AND with the clout to knock heads in the US Senate, we the people have fallen prey to the elite with the economic power to have that kind of clout.- Angry Populism Could Save The GOP
By Thomas B. Edsall
2 comments:
Yo Gus, How have you been? Hope life is going well for you. I often stop by this NC Swede blog. I miss you at NJ Voices. I say that not to entice your swift return but rather out of fondness for what was.
My heart keeps me believing in Obama. Silly to follow your heart but we humans can't seem to help ourselves. I'm Obama's *man* even though he has not lived up to all I had envisioned.
Until an actual bill is signed for *Healthcare Reform*, we don't know what we will get for sure. In my humble opinion, the best option, *Universal/Single Payer* is out of the picture. Some citizens blame Obama and some realize America is run by corporations that rely on that insurance profit.
Politics is a vile and ugly creature when moneyed interests control the legislature. What we have certainly doesn't resemble democracy when you get down to it. I believe the term you like is *Corporationism*. It works for me.
I keep hope alive that reform will happen through the *Public Option*. If a bill comes to Obama without the *Public Option*, he must veto it. OR else he loses my support. I am not alone. Then again, if he lets me down, will I forgive? Will I give him another chance... only time will tell for sure.
Peace to you Gus.
Dion
Dion,
I miss what was also.
Sorry, but when the Dems tossed single payer over the side, they thought that was compromise enough to get the public option. Anyone halfway rational could have told them that in deep-sixing single payer they gave up their leverage on the left.
Always good to hear from you.
Gus
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