The President’s Failure. And His Challenge.

[Valin]

Via Meadia:

 

Roger Berkowitz

9/3/12

 

I spoke with my daughter the other day. She is seven. I asked her what she thought of Mitt Romney’s speech. She answered: “Both he and President Obama tell lies simply to get elected.” Now I know she is to some extent parroting what she hears around our dinner table and the playground. But there is something deeply disheartening in her seven-year-old cynicism. There is a deep sense not only that our politicians lie, but also that the Presidency is a broken institution. That the President is captive of interests special and not-so-special. That the President is trapped in a bureaucracy impervious to change and that the President, whomever he or she may be, cannot really change the perilous course on which our nation is headed. This indeed is the topic of an upcoming conference, *“Does the President Matter? A Conference on the American Age of Political Disrepair.”

 

There are myriad sources for this pessimism that one hears from seven-year-olds, college students, and adults. It is markedly different from the idealism that swept the country four years ago, personified in Barack Obama. More so than at any time I know of, there is a sense of total hopelessness—a feeling that neither party and no potential president can change our course for the better.

 

(Snip)

 

Jamieson’s critique of the President is harsh, but I think it is accurate. That is the reason why Romney’s claim of disappointment strikes me as powerful. Whether Romney offers an alternative is hard to know, since he himself seems to change his opinions and views weekly. That said, President Obama has his work cut out for him. He must show us that he can articulate a response to the disappointment people feel and provide the hope that even after three years of failing to do so, he can still get the country back on track.

 

(Snip)

 

 

* Shades of the late 1070's