Not Macchiavellian
Here’s what I know about leadership from my reading of Sun Tzu and Macchiavelli: Being nice is easy. Being powerful and feared is better.
One would have thought Barack Obama knew this. I didn’t expect George W. Bush to have read them (although Dick Cheney could have written sequels), but I assumed that Obama had read “The Art of War” and “The Prince.” Read them and understood them. But there he was the morning after his electoral “shellacking,” promising to work closely with the very people who that same day were saying that their primary mission is to restrict or undo his achievements thus far, and to deny him a second term. I’m trying to decide whether the appropriate word for Obama’s response is “feckless” or “craven.” Until the final month before the election, he hadn’t stood up for what he believes in, had not propounded his principles in a way that would resonate and draw respect, and now here he was the morning after the mid-terms again folding his tent. What the moment demanded was Churchill. What we got was Neville Chamberlain. Obama is the president of the United States. The Republicans took one chamber of the Congress, not two. What can they pass without the president? Nothing. What can they undo? Nothing. How can he not know this?
Unless, maybe, he is ready to employ a tactic from the masters of intrigue: deception. If I were Obama, I would put on every outward sign of “cooperation” for the next six months, feeding my foes’ underestimation of me, while sticking a shiv in them every chance I got. Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s what he’s going to do. He still hasn’t learned that he was right the first time, when he sized these people up as his enemies.
November 5th, 2010 at 3:18 am
Yeah, I was hoping from the start that Obama would come on stronger. A man of his intelligence and eloquence would/should have put those a**holes on the run. But no. He let them define him & his policies, and now they’re saying Tuesday’s election results were a clear message that everybody in the country wants him to resign and give the government back to them
I for one welcome our new messiah, President Palin.
November 6th, 2010 at 6:07 am
I used to be concerned (in the days of Uncle Bill) that there would be a string of one term Presidents that would lead to a Constitutional Convention. I am now convinced that during the Federalist period, that Madison and others knew there would be a curve in the biorhythms of their baby, that would lead to our current problems. I believe now that there is a way out of this, and if Obama continues in his present situation of feckless/rudderlessness, the backstop that kicks in is for a challenge of the President by his own party, it could happen. Instability is a historical juncture that no nation can afford, I have to believe that there are redundancies in place that will restore our strengths. I’m back to my first choice, Hillary Clinton, once the inevitable ‘cat fight’ parody on SNL is behind us, she’ll be able to defeat Ms. Palin handily. Hil’s no messiah, and that’s a plus.
November 6th, 2010 at 6:08 am
Holy shit, did you look at the frown on that man? Holy fucking shit.
November 6th, 2010 at 12:45 pm
Almost as bad as W’s smirk!
November 7th, 2010 at 1:00 pm
I’d welcome a smirk…
November 8th, 2010 at 10:20 pm
You can insult Bush, but his grades in school speak for themselves. Barack hides his – I wonder why?
Have you looked at the polls? Most Americans don’t want to buy what he’s selling! The Republicans promised to do what they perceived Americans want, and the rejection of Obama’s policies are what Americans want. I disagree with you; he’s had two years to express his principles. What he & the left don’t seem to get is most of us don’t like his policies or share his principles! And , no, Republicans ca’t pass any legislation. But neither can the Dems. So should I feel sorry for the Magic Negro now that he now has to learn to play well with others? Maybe, but it’s a lesson he should have learned long ago. But I doubt he will: he and his surrogates will just continue bashing anyone who disagrrees with them. But from us bitter Americans clinging to our guns & Bibles – see you in two years!
November 10th, 2010 at 8:32 am
“The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.” –
— Winston Churchill
November 11th, 2010 at 5:17 am
“Democrats have a unique talent for grabbing defeat from the jaws of victory”-Mike the cab driver.
They had 60 votes, they had the House, and they had the White House. Once they lost the super majority in the Senate, things got even trickier. Maybe now that both sides are slightly better represented, they will feel more inclined to compromise. Because maybe it’s just me, but I don’t like the idea of Obama knifing people like Scott Brown, who seems to be a human being first and a party member second.
Plus, Machiavelli was writing for authoritarian regimes with lifelong leaderships; Obama can’t be feared in that way, or those that fear him certainly won’t re-elect him.
November 11th, 2010 at 3:16 pm
Lex, I like what you have here, you’ve obviously mastered the ability to be objective. I honestly have to believe that there is a fundamental American-ness to the teetering imbalance of power. Representation must be reflective enough of a massive number of Americans and at the same time have elements brought to it from the ‘sides’ that enable and inform innovation.
Lets see how a ‘Tea Party-Libertari-conservative-crats’ mish mosh headed to Washington handles the news that The Deficit Commission is releasing now. We’re being advised by that panel, all made up of ultra rich white guys in long black socks, that we’re in need of spending cuts across the board. Meaning all the other guys in long black socks in Congress are going to face losing their pork barrels, and their power. Too much metaphor…sorry.
Obama, still on his swing into the Far East, is already talking the kind of sacrifice he’s only dared to hint at from 2008’s wild campaign and victory. But seeing whether there’s any real action to be had in solving our future problems, like getting all the legislators down through the ages and into today, off the drug – – of bridges to nowhere and Air Force war making equipment designed for the cold war of the 1960s and ’70s – – making the kind of changes all those ‘we want our country back’ people have sworn to… I don’t think that was in the planbook. The Republicans just want victory, and fuck all that ‘Country First’ bullshit. They might be silenced by the old guard Republicans, whose money funded the tea party, not Sarah Palin, I’m talking about Haley Barbour, Dick Armey, and the Koch Brothers. In other words, more rich white guys with long black socks.
They have an amazing ability to raise money.
The action can come from Obama if he’s made bolder by what has happened in the mid-term. Like Clinton before him, he can hijack the Republican’s idea of less spending and REALLY do a number on them. Take away all their power toys, big projects, and $600 toilet seats for Navy submarines.
Make them put their ‘no more excessive spending’ statements in the front window. By one-upping the Republicans, he could grab more attention and maybe get a leg up on them.
For the time being, the power belongs to Obama, if he’s willing to grab it, and do something with it.
He can get instant attention by just walking out of his office and onto his front lawn, Rand Paul, not so much…
If I were Barack Obama, I’d invite Uncle Bill to move into the Lincoln Bedroom, and make him my new best friend. I love politics. I love America too.