Yet Another Failed Presidency

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Yet Another Failed Presidency
By Geoffrey P. Hunt
10-6-9

Barack Obama is on track to have the most spectacularly failed presidency since Woodrow Wilson.

In the modern era, we've seen several failed presidencies- led by Jimmy Carter and LBJ. Failed presidents have one strong common trait -- they are repudiated, in the vernacular, spat out. Of course LBJ wisely took the exit ramp early, avoiding a shove into oncoming traffic by his own party. Richard Nixon indeed resigned in disgrace, yet his reputation as a statesman has been partially restored by his triumphant overture to China .

George HW Bush didn't fail as much as he was perceived to have been too much of a patrician while being uncomfortable with his more conservative allies; yet Bush Sr is still man of uncommon decency loyal to the enduring American character of rugged self-determination, free markets and generosity. George W will eventually be treated more kindly by historians as one whose potential was squashed by his own compromise of conservative principles, in some ways repeating the mistakes of his father, while ignoring many lessons in executive leadership he should have learned at Harvard Business School . Of course W could never quite overcome being dogged from the outset by half of the nation convinced he was electorally illegitimate thus aiding the resurgence of the liberal wing of the Democrat party.

But Barack Obama is failing. Failing big. Failing fast. And failing everywhere: foreign policy, domestic initiatives, and most importantly in forging connections with the American people. The incomparable Dorothy Rabinowitz in the WSJ put her finger on it - he is failing because he has no understanding of the American people and may indeed loath them. Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard says he is failing because he has lost control of his message and is overexposed. Clarice Feldman of AT produced a dispositive commentary showing that Obama is failing because fundamentally he is neither smart nor articulate; his intellectual dishonesty is conspicuous by its audacity and lack of shame.

There is something else more seriously wrong. How could a new president riding in on a wave of unprecedented promise and goodwill have forfeited his tenure and become a lame duck in six months? His poll ratings are in free fall. In generic balloting, the Republicans have now seized a five point advantage. This truly is unbelievable. What's going on?

No narrative. Obama doesn't have a narrative. No, not a narrative about himself. He has a self-narrative, much of it fabricated, cleverly disguised or written by someone else. But his self-narrative is isolated and doesn't connect with us. He doesn't have an American narrative that draws upon the rest of us. All successful presidents have a narrative about the American character that intersects with their own where they display a command of history and reveal an authenticity at the core of their personality that resonates in a positive endearing way to the majority of Americans. We admire those presidents whose narrative not only touches our own but who seem stronger, wiser and smarter than we are. Presidents we admire are inspirational peers, even those whose politics don't align exactly with our own. Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, Harry Truman, Ike, Reagan.

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