Our Statuesque President

Recently, there has been a deluge of reader requests that I assess the Obama presidency.

Actually, a few emails. OK, mostly from a guy named Matt.

Matt is no Obama fan, and has been adamant that I pile some derision on the president. Often, when I write something critical or snarky about Republican hopefuls in Iowa, Matt wonders when I'll do the same to the president, in the interest of fairness, of course.

I'm not Pizza Hut. I don't normally take orders. But for Matt's sheer persistence, I'll make an exception and share some thoughts about our president's woes. Satisfaction is not guaranteed, however.

Truth is, Obama has disappointed me in many ways. But I've been watching politics pretty closely for going on 20 years, so disappointment is not a new feeling. Maybe you believed Obama's lofty talk of transforming Washington into a post-partisan paradise. I did not. There is no force in the universe, short of an asteroid, that can transform Washington.

The problem is, I think the president believed it. I think the guy really thought he could be all smart, reasonable and charming and win everyone over. His naivete was not revealed in a 3 a.m. phone call; it was in broad daylight, on Capitol Hill.

Instead of seizing his electoral mandate and leading the charge, he actually handed the fate of the most important pieces of his agenda to, hands down, the most dysfunctional organization in our country, the U.S. Congress. It doesn't matter which side is in charge. It's a train wreck with a dome.

Instead of unveiling clear, distinct plans for the economic stimulus, health care, financial regulation, etc., barnstorming the country to explain and sell them, unleashing his campaign's fearsome grass roots network to push them and then demanding that Congress pass them without loading on pork or favors, he faded into the wallpaper. Instead of leading us, he let some of the most ham-handed lawmakers in American history take the reins.

And while Obama waited and hoped ever so hard for a magical bipartisan deal that would never, ever come, he gave his enemies all the time they needed to burn portrayals of his “socialist” aims into the national consciousness. The president who vowed to change Washington merely became one more of the capital's silent statues, gazing longingly toward a time of statesmanlike compromises that is as dead today as cold white marble. Confusion and zealotry filled the leadership vacuum he created.

To be fair, Obama has faced vehement and often dishonest opposition in a media age when every drop of conflict, no matter how insignificant or fleeting, is magnified. He's chalked up some remarkable accomplishments, here and abroad, and it's certainly too early to declare him finished. One look at the current field of Republican alternatives should tell you that.

But he's now backed into a corner. And we'll get to see if president charming can fight.