Reflections From a Murky Pond

To me it seems inevitable that Obama’s tenure as President will be seen as a failure. There’s still some chance that he’ll be reelected in 2012, but, should that come to pass, it will be more due to a possible lack of viable GOP candidate than any great support for President Obama.

Frankly I think that just about anyone who got elected as POTUS in 2008 was going to end up being seen as a failure. America has troubles for which there are no perfect or pain-free solutions.

What’s both somewhat odd and also very scary for America’s future is that it is not the Right, the Conservatives, who will ensure that President Obama is considered a failure; it’s the Left, the Liberals and the “Progressives” that will ensure such fate comes to pass.

I’ve noticed this trend, but this one singular post by a random blogger, july7nyc, in response to this screed at HuffPo summed up the situation perfectly and eloquently.

I admit, I got caught up in the hype. I believed, hoped. And I voted. He’s a great speaker- I’ll give him that. I expected Obama to come in blazing- even Bush didn’t seem to have a problem getting his agenda passed.

I never anticipated the resistance from other Democrats! His lack of leadership on health care has infuriated me. Why he didn’t meet with all the Dems and pointedly say, “Look, here is what we’re going to do with health care. You are going to back it up and vote for it and we are going to pass it and if you have a problem, you suck it up because you were elected to represent the people and the people want health care reform. If you give me a problem, I will make your life very difficult, but if we do this, you will reap the benefits.”

There should not have been this lengthy, drawn-out time for “debate” and town halls and letting the Republicans lie and mislead and sour positive reform. The fact that even if this pathetic excuse for a health care bill passes, it is so watered down and worthless, it can only make things worse, further demonstrates what can happen when you allow the very industry you’re trying to reform, have center stage.

I am changing to Independent and I don’t even know what that fully means, but I do know I cannot align myself with a party of failures any longer.

It seems that many – july7nyc was just the one whose post resonated the most -  on the Left feel the same way as President Obama’s Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Relations and Public Liaison, Valerie Jarrett, made it clear how she felt when Obama was first elected President.

However, given the daunting challenges that we face, it’s important that president elect Obama is prepared to really take power and begin to rule day one.

– Valerie Jarrett
November 9th Meet The Press Interview

“Take power and rule” seems to be what many Liberals wanted Obama to do. Despite their very vocal and strident hatred of President Bush’s supposedly autocratic manner and his “Imperial Presidency,” the Liberals sound like they both wanted and expected President Obama to behave in exactly the same manner – only with an agenda that the Left favored.

The Left wanted and expected President Obama to truly lead his Liberals in Congress to enact a punitive regime and ram the Liberal agenda down America’s throats, irrespective of the fact that it is not the POTUS’ place to lead Congress. Bipartisanship, except possibly President Obama’s “interestingly” realpolitik definition of it, was not to be tolerated.

But President Obama is failing them. For good or ill his preference for rhetoric over action and the softer forms of coercion over direct exercise of power is as prevalent in his domestic policy as it is in his foreign policy. Obama is just unwilling to be the leader that the Liberals wanted and thought that they were getting.

More and more I’m sure that they will make him pay heavily and painfully for his great sin of disappointing them. That, more than anything from the Right, is why Obama will fail.

Valerie Jarrett, co-chair of Barack Obama’s Transition Team was interviewed by Tom Brokaw on Meet the Press this weekend (November 9th, 2008) and she discussed her views on the transition from the Bush presidency to the Obama presidency.

Let me politely say that some of her words on the topic of Obama’s presidency were unfortunate.

YouTube excerpt from Valerie Jarrett’s interview on Meet the Press on November 9, 2008:

I must say that I’m not particularly pleased with the attitude displayed by Jarrett in regards to how Obama should proceed with his administration. I’m not alone either. Various Conservatives and Constitutionalists are already jumping on Jarrett’s gaffe as being a harbinger of the dictatorial excesses to come from President Obama. Much like Rahm Emanuel’s appointment as Chief of Staff, Valerie Jarrett’s gaffe – already being called a Freudian slip by some – does not bode well.

However, given the daunting challenges that we face, it’s important that president elect Obama is prepared to really take power and begin to rule day one.

– Valerie Jarrett
November 9th Meet The Press Interview

In the United States our leaders “take office;” they do not “take power.” In the United States our leaders “govern” or “serve;” they do not “rule.” To rule is the province of kings, and America is staunchly opposed to such beings – at least within the US.

To be fair, there is no evidence so far that President-Elect Barack Obama harbors any delusions of being either able or allowed to rule as opposed to govern, serve, and administrate. Jarrett’s words and possible views should not be granted more weight than they deserve.

I believe that what should be of primary concern is that such views as “take power and rule” intimate show a certain type and level of expectations that are being placed upon Obama by his advisers, backers, and supporters. Many people crave “Change” as was proved by the recent elections. Obama may have trouble meeting their expectations while operating within the constitutionally bound powers of the Presidency.

Some secondary concern should be given to the idea of Obama at least maintaining a semblance of humility and bipartisanship in the wake of such a bitterly contested election. Neither Emanuel’s appointment or Jarrett’s comments show any such semblance and serve only to entrench the Right and further fuel the Left’s expectations of “payback.”