The NYT's Roger Cohen reports Henry Kissinger's take on Barack Obama's performance to date:
"He reminds me of a chess grandmaster who has played his opening in six simultaneous games," Kissinger said. "But he hasn't completed a single game and I'd like to see him finish one."
Cohen says he thinks that is quite apt, and I agree. He goes on to argue that Obama seems over-managed and over-scripted, lacking in "guts" and "warmth"--a common complaint this past year, and now increasingly popular even among Obama admirers. Here though I disagree. I don't think it hurts that he is reflective and cerebral: he is charming too, and can connect emotionally, so he can get away with it. In any event Obama is a brainy president and it would be a mistake for him to pretend not to be. His problem--and the polls show he does have a problem--is not so much intellectual distance as political distance: he seems oddly removed from the discussion the country is having about its future.
You see plenty of him, to be sure. You just don't see him guiding the debate on health care, or energy, or financial regulation, or anything.
Next week this should change. It had better. He is expected to announce, finally, his decision on additional forces for Afghanistan. He has just upped the stakes by saying that he, unlike his predecessor, "would finish the job" the US started eight years ago. A bold formulation.
This is an unpopular war. Selling the case for extra troops--assuming that is what he announces--is going to be as important for his presidency as it is difficult. When he announces this decision, it will be his. He will not be able to stand aside from it. We will find out what kind of a leader he is.
Spoken like a zen master.
If only these men knew how big they really are.
If by "...oddly removed from the discussion the country is having about its future," you mean that the President hasn't presented a narrative for us to understand the country's most pressing issues, everyone's role in them and the way to address them, then I agree. He seems to be working on policies, but these policies need a compelling narrative to resonate with people.
My concern is that the President is taking on too many issues and one of the many drawbacks with that is the inability to create clear visions that resonate with the country.
We will find out what kind of a leader he is.
Pretty sure I know: one who is not driven by polls, an ill-informed press and public, and a totally vacuous and ineffective Congress. Without so much as a howdy-do this administration has somehow managed to turn the train on a 90-degree corner at full speed on foreign policy, the economy, and even those pesky wars in the Middle East. I am constantly amazed by commentariat's and reporter's amazement when they are seemingly pushing Obama only to find he's been there, done that, and has moved on to the next crisis without them. So far, *that's* the kind of leader he's been.
My gosh, well said 'rba.'
My sentiments, too.