The Advice Obama Is Now Receiving
As Obama drifts the extreme Left is getting frantic. Obama doesn’t seem to have clear convictions or the ability to get anything done. He has trusted advisors who tell him he is charismatic and a great orator. But he can’t even convince Pelosi. A health care bill could have been passed if he saw that an election in Massachusetts might subvert things, and so push his allies to get it done NOW. Internationally, the world and the problems America faces are intractable and no media constructed tin god is going to convince anyone on the international stage to disown their interests.
The (disastrous) advice Obama is being offered (reportedly widely disseminated in media circles),
Set up a Team B with diverse political and national security observers like Tom Daschle, John Podesta, Brent Scowcroft, Arianna Huffington, Fareed Zakaria, Katrina vanden Heuvel, John Harris, James Fallows, Chuck Hagel, Strobe Talbott, James Baker, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and others to give you a no-nonsense picture of what is going on…Otherwise, the Obama brand will be totally bust in the very near term.
That is from his supporters.
Some are speculating Obama is a loser. It is way to easy to say that, and too early to know. But the disturbing band of recommended advisors would, if embraced, wreck Obama’s chances. Could you believe Arianna Huffington and Zbigniew Brzezinski as advisors? (Of the whole list, only Fallows seems a reasonable and thoughtful addition.)
Obama has no feel for the public — a lack of empathy, or the common touch as some would say. That is characteristic of the self-absorbed. He can’t convince because he can’t connect. His goals weren’t bad, but like Bush, he is poor in implementation and surprisingly poor in communication — you have to have content at some point. Obama is reassuringly boring, not a bad fit for disconcerting times, but now he needs to believe in something other than himself and take the public along and the pols “will follow”.
If Obama took the advice offered in that quote, that is, go extreme Left, or as the partisan would say, “give you a no-nonsense picture of what is going on” (this is funny), he will destroy his presidency. He needs to govern from the center, pressure the bad guys internationally, and fully support the good guys, like India. Focus on benefits to the middle class of health care reform. Reassure the public that he gets the deficit issue is a big one, but not let himself be controlled by it. Not let the lobbyists win out; he enabled those lobbyists by throwing out campaign finance reform when he had lots of dough in the campaign, even though that was his sole “issue” — he is due some scrutiny about that, but you aren’t going to hear Katie Couric or The News Hour prodding…
This is an interesting moment for Obama and a dire one for the country. “He’s tried that and it didn’t work”, was said by many commentators after his failed ingratiating international visits. Obama, inexperienced and self-referencing, needs to find a deeper self. He seems like a decent sort. Maybe he can do it.
