Last night when I got home, I found that I’d received a fundraising letter from Barack Obama’s re-election campaign committee. I opened it, scribbled a message on the reply card, and mailed it back. Here was my message:  “Learn how to fight, and I’ll send a check.” Given that the envelope had paid return, the president’s campaign will be paying 76 cents for my registration of fury.

All of my liberal friends have this to say:  “I think he has the hardest job of any president in history.” (Actual quote from a lunch meeting yesterday.) I agree. That’s why we need him to do a better job at it. That’s why we need him to show more spine. They also say  that Republicans won’t give him a break. What I don’t understand is why they ever thought they would; only a fool would have thought that. Politics isn’t about going along to get along (except, evidently, in Mr. Obama’s mind).

Twice in the last two weeks, I had the sinking feeling that I’d made a grievous error, that Hillary Clinton, whom I’d never liked, was the stronger candidate. (The actual thought running through my mind:  She’s got more balls than he does.)  The first time was during the debt-ceiling debacle. Re “a balanced approach” that “includes new revenues” (his words, both times), he said, “I will not yield.” (That’s a direct quote.) On the day he said that, I posted on my Facebook page, “I predict yielding.” That didn’t soften the blow, though, of a disastrous deal that restricts spending precisely when we need it, a proposition that — hold onto your hat — even the Wall Street Journal has now decided that it opposes. And then, after Standard & Poor’s downgraded the U.S. and Wall Street got a closer look at the European debt crisis and ran for cover, the president came out looking very much like Jimmy Carter, plaintively wailing that We Are a Special People, and We Will Always Be AAA, and Our Future Is Bright, and I couldn’t find one person online or in person who was buying a word of it.

The comparison to Jimmy Carter is especially painful to make. I lived through the Carter presidency, and it felt like the world was coming to an end. (Nuclear saber-rattling with the Soviets; boycotting the Olympic Games to prove some point that wasn’t made; a grain embargo that didn’t hurt the Soviets but did hurt American farmers; inflation that drove costs up with every breath; and a failed rescue mission for the hostages that symbolized everything about the administration:  good intentions, bad results.)

I never thought that Mr. Obama’s job would be easy, but I did hope he would fight. He won a number of victories early on in his presidency — when he had a Democratic Congress and it was easier — but I haven’t seen a fight out of him in quite a while now. He caved on eliminating the Bush tax cuts; he caved on every significant point in the completely concocted debt-ceiling drama; he has caved on the general GOP notion that what we need to do is cut spending and further reduce taxes. At this point, I’m not sure what he’ll stand up for. Political power redounds not just from popularity, but also from fear and intimidation. Right now, no one — no one — is afraid of Barack Obama. He hasn’t given them any reason to be. As a former fan and currently reluctant supporter, I encourage Obama the book-lover to pull “The Prince” down off his shelf and read it again.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 11th, 2011 at 9:58 am and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.