The mid to late seventies produced an American television sitcom featuring Gabe Kotter, a facetious teacher returning to his alma matter to help an unruly group of misfits have one last chance to prevail. The show’s early success gave way to the industry’s usual process of elimination (drop in ratings) yielding only the faint memory of a theme song and a few catch phrases. Interestingly, the same years gave rise to a new American President whose failed policies and misguided governance has, arguably, revealed him to be the worst President in American History. Twenty-eight years later, with the election of Barack Obama, some conservatives and liberals are wondering if the American people have welcomed Carter back.
Prior to office, both men served as state senators, and only briefly held high-profile offices before becoming president. In August of 2008 Sean Wilentz, Princeton Professor of History said “There are many ways … in which Barack Obama’s candidacy, his rhetoric is more like Jimmy Carter’s than any other Democratic president in recent history.”
In a journal publication of Foreign Policy, author Walter Russell Meade, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations described Obama’s “…long deliberation over the war in Afghanistan [as] a case study in presidential schizophrenia.” He spent more than three months discussing and debating his general’s request for troops, (arguably a sign of weak leadership) and then began rushing them in on one hand while promising their July 2011 departure on the other. Said Meade, “… the conflicting impulses influencing how this young leader thinks about the world threaten to tear his presidency apart … and turn him into a new Jimmy Carter.”
On April 20, 2010, an explosion and fire on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig took the lives of at least 11 persons, injured 17 more, and set off what has been described as the worst environmental catastrophe in American history. Obviously this kind of unexpected disaster ignites a firestorm of difficulties requiring expedience, diligence, and true leadership. The depth, duration, and resolution of the crisis can and will be used to measure the competence of the leader into whose hands it has fallen.
Tuesday evening, June 15, in a prime time oval office speech, Mr. Obama spoke to the nation about “the battle we’re waging against an oil spill that is assaulting our shores and our citizens.” He continued with assurance that a “battle plan” was in place. Unfortunately, not everyone is buying his verbiage. For example, On MSNBC Keith Olbermann said “It was a great speech if you were on another planet for the last 57 days.” Chris Matthews then compared Obama with Jimmy Carter because of his talk about “the transition away from fossil fuels.” Howard Fineman added “Obama should be acting like a commnder-in-chief.” Matthews finished with “I don’t sense executive command.”
Not only are the liberal pundits and the “in the tank” media begging for the President to act like a leader, but members of his own party have serious doubts about the “battle plan” he has purposed. Whitehouse spokesman Ben LaBolt said Obama’s speech reiterated his call for comprehensive energy and climate legislation to break the nation’s dependence on fossil fuels. In response California Democrat, Senator Dianne Feinstein said “The climate bill isn’t going to stop the oil leak. The first thing you have to do is stop the oil leak.”
Apparently the President is not exuding the kind of leadership this dilemma and his constituents demand.
After all the talk of who’s in charge, and who’s going to be sued, and who’s going to pay, and who’s to blame, it took Mr. Obama 57 days to muster a meeting with the CEO of BP. Of course taking 57 days to meet with the one person whose advice and partnership you might need for this battle is better than the 94 days it took him to send troops to Afghanistan where real bullets are flying and real bombs are going off.
Tragedy, catastrophe, and disaster bring all of us to realize our inadequacies, mortality, and our need for divine intervention when life’s problems get too big for us to handle. We also come to realize the absolute need to have skilled and experienced persons in places of authority: Leaders that can lead, defenders that can defend, and a President that knows his responsibilities and duties and is qualified to carry them out. Like Jimmy Carter, President Obama may have had one too many unmanaged disasters. Perhaps history will show us the best resemblance Mr. Obama had to Mr. Carter will be a one term presidency.
No comments:
Post a Comment