There's a line in Samuel Johnson somewhere in which he considers the popular nightmare that one has not lived up to one's potential. Hey, says the good doctor, nobody else expected all that much out of you in the first place.
Now here comes Charlie Cook with his typically astute appraisal of Tuesday's election results and the resounding evidence that the Obama honeymoon is over. File that with all the vignettes you've seen/read lately about people who are disappointed in the president.'
Allow me to go on record Mr. President, with the reassuring pronouncement that we here at Underbelly central are not disappointed with you, for the very Johnsonian reason that we never expected much from him in the first place. Indeed I once called him "an empty suit,"* which was probably a bit harsh but I did hold onto my view that, however likeable he might be (and he is likeable), still the most important executive job he'd held before now was editor of the Harvard Law Review.
I'd say that events have vindicated me pretty well so far. His charm just does not seem to translate into the Washington sweatbox; at least so far, he hasn't figured out how to deploy the daring, the nerve, the guile you need to be a first-class leader.
But even knowing what I know now, I'd vote for him again in the twinkling of a gnat's eyebrow. What a shame that we are stuck with one party seems largely unable to govern and another that seems bound and determined not to. Under the circumstances, I'll stand with the view that I'm thankful for small favors.
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*And note the ludicrously inexact predictions.
2 comments:
Aw, come on, Obama's disappointing compared to what? What he could accomplish if he was a dictator? I think he's playing a bad hand as well as anyone could. All of the Republicans in Congress are terrible, and half the Democrats are useless. I think Obama's making the most of the remaining 1/4.
Wasn't that my point?
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