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Barack Obama and the Great Debate

Okay, that’s it!  I’ve had enough!  The Obama apologists have finally jumped the shark.  The latest missive from the Our-Guy-Is-Never-Wrong school of journalism is maybe President Obama just doesn’t want to be president anymore.  Do you believe this?  It’s getting to the point where everything this guy does has some pure and saintly purpose.  He screws up one debate and suddenly we’re no longer worthy of his leadership.  It’s as if Obama were some ancient god who has grown weary of his bickering children (who continue to ignore his teachings) and more in disappointed than in anger, must now forego the redemption of the human race until mankind is ready for his message.  Or maybe Barack just operates on such a high plane of consciousness that ordinary human traits like fulfillment and ambition don’t apply to him.  I don’t know which it is, but come on, people!  Get real!

Last week, when they turned off the microphones on the Romney/Obama debate, the air pressure dropped in every newsroom in America as journalists, commentators and caterers collectively gasped in horror.   It was right out of the scene in The Man Who Would Be King when the High Priest of Kafiristan discovers that Danny bleeds red like everybody else and isn’t a god.   The priest raises his hand to show Danny’s blood to the assembled multitude, and for a full three seconds, they all stand there, stunned.   Such was the case last Wednesday.  The echoes in Denver took a long time dying as the interior monologue of every bicoastal opinionator was screaming, “Holy crap!  What just happened?”  When they shook themselves back to reality, the wailing was uncontrollable.  The guy from The Daily Beast was practically in tears, Bill Maher tried to slash his wrists with the sharp end of his tongue, and I’m sure Chris Matthews strangled at least one fact checker in abject rage on his way to the microphone.  From there, everybody east and west of the Continental Divide who wasn’t hanging onto something simply got buried in the Excuse-and-Blame avalanche.

Nothing was sacred.  One commentator said that Romney (the dirty cheater) had an unfair advantage because he’d had several recent debates during the primaries and Obama hadn’t had any.  Another guy blamed Senator John Kerry for being too easy on the president during their practice sessions because he wants to be Secretary of State.   They accused Romney of having notes on his handkerchief.  They blamed the format, the venue and the altitude.  Hell, at one point they even turned on Jim Lehrer and denounced him for being old, semi-retired and losing control of the situation – which, apparently, gave Romney yet another unfair advantage.

If I sound bitter, I am.  I’m absolutely fed up to the eyeballs with the cult of personality that surrounds this president.  He’s not Kim Jong-un for God’s sake!  President Obama puts his pants on, one leg at a time, just like everybody else.  He can and does make mistakes.  He has off days and bad nights.  He proved that, last Wednesday.  He is not all-knowing, all-seeing and all-wise.  And face it, folks: he is not now, nor, was he ever, America’s one-size-fits-all Glorious Leader.  And while I’m on the subject, just because I disagree with Barack Obama’s political philosophy, that doesn’t make me stupid, an insensitive moron or a witless dupe of some Republican propaganda machine.  I am just as aware of the issues as the next person and my opinion is just a valid as theirs is.

Here’s the deal: President Obama screwed up last week.  For whatever reason, he didn’t get the job done.  However, just because he didn’t meet the expectations of his supporters doesn’t automatically mean he was the victim of a plot, a conspiracy or Jim Lehrer’s gross incompetence.  Whether you like the guy or not, it’s time to remember he’s just a guy, trying to do his job the best way he knows how.  If you think he’s doing a good job, vote for him.  If you don’t, don’t.  But this never-ending beatification is getting really tiresome.

The State Department: Who’s Running the Show?

I hate to complain, but, seriously, who’s running American foreign policy these days?  Scooby Doo?  It’s common knowledge that Hillary is going home in January to run for president, but as lame ducks go, she’s lamer than most.  And where is the heir apparent?  Nobody’s going to convince me that Susan Rice’s duties at the UN are keeping her from voicing an opinion now and then.  I know she prefers a low profile, but how much time does it take to sit there and get insulted?  It’s becoming obvious to everybody from Beijing to Benghazi that the ship of state down at the State Department doesn’t have a captain — or a first mate, for that matter.

There was a time when American foreign policy was so successful it was universally hated, kinda like the New York Yankees.  It fought a World War, a Cold War, several itty bitty hot ones, managed to keep its friends from killing each other and kept its enemies at bay.  Even in the dark days of Henry the K and Barbara Walters, American diplomacy had a purpose and, like it or not, Pax Americana worked.  Better hurry, boys, ‘cause that boat’s about to sail.

I realize that there’s a new reality in the world.  Omnipotence is not all it’s cracked up to be, and gargantuan power is useless unless you can fake the other guy into thinking you’ll use it.  The problem is nobody’s even worried about the bluff anymore.  To continue the analogy, America is still sitting there with Aces over Kings, but every penny ante wannabe with Jack high is rushing the table to go “All In.”  The rationale is somebody’s going to get an easy pot when the boys and girls from Foggy Bottom fold.

Objectively, I don’t blame the folks from Katphoodistan for challenging American power.  After all, what have they got to lose?  The only thing Obama’s going to launch these days is his teleprompter.  My problem is America is giving away the diplomatic farm.  That’s not a good idea.  As the United States’ most cautious neighbour, I really don’t want a bunch of international adventurers thinking that Barak isn’t keeping his bayonets sharp.  Frankly, anti-Americanism is a low-impact parlour game for the people who believe that without the Great Satan, everybody on earth would suddenly get a rainbow.  Me?  I’m a little bit less Pollyanna than that.  There are bad people in this world, and when push comes to shove, I don’t want to have to prove I can defend myself.  I find it quite a bit more to my taste (as most people west of the Vistula do) to sit on the sidelines and rely on the kids from Kansas and Nebraska to stand up and take the hit.  And that’s the bigger problem.

Power, real power, is not based on what you do; it’s based on what you’re willing to do.  As more and more people think the United States is not willing to do anything to … Oh, I don’t know … make sure a bunch of fascist fundamentalists from the 8th century don’t develop nuclear weapons and turn Tel Aviv into a glow-in-the-dark Mediterranean night light — the more likely it is that somebody’s going to get hurt.  America’s indecision and inability to figure out where its national interest lies is inadvertently telling the world it’s in retreat from the international stage.  More than a few folks out there are willing to take the risk to fill the void. In fact, every time America steps away from its allies (Britain, Israel, South Korea, Japan — and the list goes on) every time American diplomats fear for their safety; every time some pumped-up potentate gets a mixed message about American intentions; those emboldened few lurch us a little closer to somebody doing something stupid.  And I’m not even necessarily talking about the bad guys!  When that happens, as history has shown us, a whole lot of people are going to have to clean up the mess.

America needs to remember that deterrent is not action.  (That’s after the fact.)  Deterrent is reputation and without a reputation, there is no deterrent.

The Information Gap and the Re-elect of Barack Obama

When I was young, people were just beginning to talk about the Generation Gap; that mythical disconnect between the young and the old that coloured so much of my generation.  Time passed, and as the Class of ’68 got older, this phenom morphed into the Credibility Gap.  After all, whining about the older generation when you’re standing there with a husband, a boyfriend, a mortgage, two cars and three kids just sounds silly.  However, the Credibility Gap was significantly different from “You’re an old, old dog and I’m a young, young puppy; I simply can’t relate to you.*”  It was no longer just a function of age.  Credibility had an active ingredient.  It could be lost; it had to be maintained, and there was always the connotation that, when credibility was lost, it was through some wanton act of deception – a dirty deed, if you will.  From there, maybe a generation later, the Credibility Gap itself mutated and became the Information Gap.  As more and more spin was applied to even the most basic facts, nearly everything that wasn’t nailed down lost its credibility.  People simply didn’t believe the information they were given.  However, the fiction that credibility – or, rather, the lack of it — was inherently tangled up with something sinister survived and, in fact, thrived.  The supposition was — and remains to this day — “If I don’t believe you, you must be evil.”

Fast forward to 2012 and the American election.  Last week, a George Washington University poll showed some astonishing results.  In six out of six categories (the economy, foreign policy, spending, taxes, Medicare and job creation) the American middle class favoured Mitt Romney over President Barack Obama, and not just by a little bit: they ranged from 2% on Medicare to 15% on spending.  Yes, this throws a monkey wrench into the “Romney’s finished” school of thought, but before you get your knickers in a knot, the really interesting bit is in the seventh category, “Who best stands up for the middle class?”  Barack Obama beat Mitt’s brains out — by a whopping plus 8%!  Think about it!  In all the hard core categories that count, people favour Romney, yet, on the wishy-washy “How do you feel about it?” category that leads directly to the ballot box, President Obama won, hands down.  This is an example of the Information Gap.

Everybody knows that Barack Obama is not a very good president.  Even Yellow Dog Democrats are beating the bushes, trying to find good things to say about the guy.  The best they can come up with so far is he inherited a hell of a mess and the Republicans are being mean to him.  While these are both true, unfortunately, folks, neither one of them is what anybody would call an accomplishment.  Especially since he got hired in the first place because he specifically told everybody, from Stockholm to Santa Barbara, that he was the new broom who would deal with these situations and with anything else that came down the pike.  What a difference a term makes!  I’m not going to get into chapter and verse about how bad the Obama administration is; however, I will say this: nobody’s talking about a Golden Age in America these days, not even Alec Baldwin.  In fact, most people are discussing the eminent decline and fall.  These are facts.  The apologists can bob and weave all they like, but, to quote John Adams: “Facts are stubborn things and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”  The facts are the last four years in America have been the closest thing to a disaster without actually getting there.

Okay, you have an incumbent president who isn’t worth much; one would assume that Harold the Talking Penguin could beat the guy.  Nay-Nay!  Not only is Obama holding his own, he’s actually leading in a number of important (read “swing”) states.  Barack Obama has a real chance of getting re-elected.  Why?  Because his opponent, Mitt Romney, is rich, and the talk around the campfire is rich people can’t be trusted.  The assumption is Romney will somehow subvert the government (that dirty deed we were talking about) to further the ends of his rich friends.  There is no evidence of this: no smoking gun at Bain and Company, no skeletons discovered at the 2002 Winter Olympics and no bodies buried at the Governor’s Mansion in Massachusetts.  Yet the rumour persists.

This is the Information Gap taken to its natural conclusion.  The last four years have shown that — at best — President Obama is incompetent, and some would say downright negligent.  On the other hand, Mitt Romney has been a successful business person, a community organizer who rescued the 2002 Winter Olympics, and a fiscally responsible governor who eliminated Massachusetts’ deficit.  Yet, despite all the information available and the fact that 62% of Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, there is a better than even chance that the American people will give Barack Obama a mandate to continue to govern them badly.  Go figure!

*Sesame Street or The Electric Company; I don’t remember which.