Posted by
flagwaver on Thursday, September 03, 2009 9:50:01 AM
I suppose that when a person doesn't know what to do, he naturally goes back to doing what he knows. And in the case of President Obama, all he really knows how to do is campaign; give stump speeches, work a crowd, gaze lovingly into his teleprompter, and talk about things.
Because talking about things is easy; doing things, not so much.
So we are to be treated to another thrilling Obamawood spectacle that is supposed to refocus us on the urgency of healthcare/ health insurance reform. The president is going to the Congress in a joint session, stand in front of them and the American people via television, and give another one of his faux Stae of the Union addresses, all in the hope that his very words and presence will turn the debate back in his favor. Seeking to reverse the beatings he has taken on this issue over the past two or three months, President Obama is going back to what he knows.
He knows how to speak to crowds of adoring supporters, how to get them into an emotional frenzy, shouting "Yes We Can!" at the top of their lungs, and how to mesmerize a willing and pliant media. Because as Chris Mathews famously said, the media is not so much covering this president as it is seeking ways to help him. So Obama will go before his adoring crowd of minions, make some high sounding speech that is short on specifics, and the media will treat it like it as important as Moses bringing the Ten Commandments from Mt. Sinai. We will have days, maybe even a week, of fawning coverage of the president's masterful speech and how it has shored up his base and his congressional allies to get a healthcare bill on his desk by the end of the year. That is all to be expected, but in the end it won't matter; the proverbial needle on healthcare will not be moved by one speech, no matter how eloquent or grandiose. Because the people want more than pretty words; they want honesty and action. And they won't be getting it from this president any time soon.
President Obama, after all, has no experience or inclination to actually lead on this issue. His idea of leadership is best summed up thus: identify a problem, make a speech about it, and declared the problem solved. It worked when he threw Trinity UCC, Jeremiah Wright, and his own granny under his campaign bus; it worked when he dismissed his relationship with Bill Ayers as that of working with some guy who just happens to live in the neighborhood, and it worked when he made his wife off limits during the campaign, even tough she was giving nearly as many stump speeches as he was (as a matter of fact she spoke here at my college, Winston-Salem Sate University during the campaign).
What Obama and his handlers don't seem to grasp, is that now he has no cover for when he screws the pooch and campaign style rehetoric doesn't keep the people assuaged anymore. More and more the people are adopting what an attitude best summed up by something my beloved Papa Sang used to tell me, "Boy, you can SHOW me better than you can TELL me!" In a nutshell it means, words are just words but actions tell the truth. And on this issue, Obama doesn't have any actions to show for all his words. Because he has not been involved there are a myriad of competing bills floating around the halls of Congress. Some insist on a public option, while some reject it as a non-starter; some favor end of lfe counseling sessions every five years for seniors of a certain age, while another makes no mention of it. There is no consistency or unity, even among the Democrats, on what a healthcare bill will eventually look like coming out of the various House committees that are busily crafting their own versions of healthcare reform.
So when Obama stands before the assmbled Congress, cocks his head to one side and squints as if he is hearing the very voice of God in his ear, and begins to speechify about the need to support "the healthcare bill" it won't work. It may be a spectacle, but it will not win over the facets of the American community that it needs to in order to succeed. Obama will be lauded as Solomonic in his precious wisdom, and hailed as an orator on par with Daniel Webster by his media lapdogs...but the effor will fail.
Because by going back to what he knows, he will simply reinforce in the eyes of America just what he doesn't know. By constantly falling back on campaign style events and speeches, Obama shows that he knows well how to campaign for office; but by constsantly reverting to campaign mode, he points out the sad fact that he cannot fulfill the twin burdens of being president.
Governing and leadership.