As leader, Obama going to seed
By Michael Barone | Wednesday, June 29, 2011 |
Which past leader does Barack Obama most resemble? His admirers, not all of them liberals, used to compare him to Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt.
But no one seriously compares him with Lincoln or FDR anymore.
Conservatives have taken to comparing him, as you might imagine, to Jimmy Carter. But there is another comparison I think more appropriate for a president who, according to one of his foreign-policy staffers, prefers to “lead from behind.” The man I have in mind is Chauncey Gardiner, played by Peter Sellers in the 1979 movie “Being There.”
Gardiner is a clueless gardener who is mistaken for a Washington eminence and becomes a presidential adviser. Asked if you can stimulate growth through temporary incentives, Gardiner says, “As long as the roots are not severed, all is well and all will be well in the garden.”
“First comes the spring and summer,” he explains, “but then we have fall and winter. And then we get spring and summer again.” The president is awed as Gardiner sums up, “There will be growth in the spring.”
Kind of reminds you of Obama’s approach to the federal budget, doesn’t it?
In preparing his February budget, Obama ignored the recommendations of his own fiscal commission. Others noticed: The Senate rejected the initial budget by a vote of 97-0.
Then in April, Obama said he was presenting a new budget with $4 trillion in long-term spending cuts. But there were no specifics.
Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf was asked last week if the CBO had prepared estimates of this budget. “We don’t estimate speeches,” Elmendorf, a Democrat, explained. “We need much more specificity than was provided in that speech for us to do our analysis.”
Evidently “first we have the spring and summer” was not enough.
Then Obama deputed Vice President Joe Biden and congressional leaders to handle negotiations over raising the debt ceiling. But last Thursday two Republicans, Rep. Eric Cantor and Sen. Jon Kyl, left the bargaining table and said that they wouldn’t return until Democrats dropped demands for tax increases. After all, if the Democrats hadn’t been able to raise taxes on high earners when they had large majorities in December’s lame duck session, what makes anyone think this more Republican Congress will raise them?
Cantor said it was impossible to make progress unless Obama got personally involved. Top Senate Democrat Harry Reid said the same thing. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie offered succinct advice: “First, the president can show up.”
Well, Obama has agreed to do that Monday. But while Chauncey Gardiner, in his befuddlement, tried to answer questions squarely, Obama has seemed less interested in the substance of public policy than in framing campaign issues.
On a host of issues, Obama seems disengaged, aloof from the work of government, hesitant about making choices. That doesn’t sound like Lincoln. Or Roosevelt. Or even Carter. More like “then we have fall and winter.”
Michael Barone is senior political analyst for The Washington Examiner.
Article URL: bostonherald.com |
