Not True

Middle ground is often hard to find, regardless of whether you try to get there from the left or the right. President Obama made the news three times last week, with each appearance being overshadowed more by politics than the substance behind his comments. His presidency has taken the appearance of a rudderless ship, using the press and public opinion to drive short term goals with no strategic plan to maintain direction. Weekly the administration’s cast of characters marches onto the Sunday morning talk shows and Emanuel, Axelrod, Gibbs, and even Clinton pontificate this week’s new agenda. Like the Clinton years, weekly trial balloons are floated and the Chicago political machine drives the weekly agenda. Sadly, the theme of the week does not deliver substance, but instead takes our country on “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride”.

A historic opportunity was in front of President Obama last week with the State of the Union Address. However, he again shifted blame for the economy back to the prior eight years before he was elected; offering a repeated argument, he “inherited a failing economy after eight years of bad decisions.” I have previously offered that leaders need to own situations, plans, and provide concrete strategies, but Obama prefers to savor projecting blame. Worsening his image, his speech was overshadowed by his gaffe against the Supreme Court’s recent first amendment ruling. He erred in stating foreign corporations would be allowed to spend in our elections, although 2 U.S.C. 441e(b)(3) prevents this and Justice Alito responded, forever tainting the tone of the speech.

On Friday Obama went to Baltimore to dialogue directly with the Republican Caucus. News reports showed sparring, and the “Huffington Post” reported he mauled the lions in the lion’s den. A frequent video clip of the networks is Obama stating, “I am not an ideologue.” However, my check of the dictionary shows an ideologue to be “an often blindly partisan advocate or adherent of a particular ideology.” My recollection of the last twelve months is locking the minority party out of discussions on health care, mocking the passionate citizens of the minority, and demonizing anyone who disagrees with the majority’s agenda. Regardless, I am impressed he engaged, and more importantly did so without a teleprompter.

Saturday was much more in line with the sound bites this President enjoys. His appearance on the sidelines and participating in the commentary at the Georgetown vs. Duke basketball game drove home his likeability. Comfortable in the celebrity style spotlight and ravishing the attention, Obama delivered his typical one-liner partisan dig when asked about being left-handed and responded, "I went to the Republican House caucus just yesterday to prove that I could go to my right once in a while.” Once again though, he received significant coverage of an insignificant event, managing his image and failing to deliver substance.

This last week shined light on the tissue paper thin qualifications of our President and peeled the onion back to show a man that continues to operate in campaign mode, not a strong leader with the strength he promised. The State of the Union a year later was the platform to recount “Hope and Change”. However, promises were broken – Guantanamo, Afghanistan, reducing unemployment – all of which don’t require opposition party support. Even ramming the largest healthcare bill in history into the economy was not accomplished because he cannot lead his own party. Last week’s State of the Union speech could have enticed all Americans, but the populist platform rang hollow with disappointment.