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The Unmaking of a President
Governing in prose is one thing. Preferring weasel words to governing at all is another
At 50, observed George Orwell, "everyone has the face he deserves". Unusually for that godliest of lefty seers, he was wrong. Rupert Murdoch passed that milestone three decades ago with no appendages emerging from his temples (although in Orwell's defence, he may have endured a pioneering double hornectomy).
With Barack Obama, on the other hand, Orwell was broadly correct. The President hits the half-century tomorrow with the handsome, placid features he deserves. It is the fizzog of a gentle, decent if intellectually arrogant man, untormented by the self-loathing that made Nixon look so cruelly vulpine, and free from the lupine seediness that hinted at Bill Clinton's appetites long before that woman Miss Lewinsky's blue dress went to the DNA analysis section at Sketchley's.
Signs of middle age are evident, it's true, from the rapidly greying hair and heavy creasing at the sides of the mouth. But his face remains enviably unravaged by the sleep deprivation and unimaginable stresses imposed by the rapid imperial decline set in motion by his predecessor's monstrous cabal.
Michelle certainly likes it. "She still thinks I'm cute," said Obama the other day. "And I guess that's all that matters, isn't it?" Well, no, you felt, it isn't. Other things matter too: things such as his fiscal capitulation to the terrorist far right that will rob tens of millions – the very people on whose primary behalf he ran for president – to ensure that the rich, mega-rich and hyper-rich continue to pay a smaller proportion in tax than the average American nurse. Looking at that face today, in fact, the only way it could conform more precisely to Orwell's dictum is if, in the next 12 hours, his liver succumbed to the jaundice that turned it bright yellow. For this was a heartbreaking act of skin-saving cowardice.
I hate to come over all crudely simplistic about an event of byzantine complexity, because the cards Obama held were, like so many of the hands dealt him since taking office, close to unplayable. As Sarah Churchwell brilliantly wrote on these pages yesterday, there is no negotiating with as delusional, anti-democratic and rank ignorant an entity as the Tea Party. These people are the modern version of Samson, literature's first suicide bomber, and would bring the temple down on themselves to kill the enemy, be that the concept of taxation itself or a black leader, or both.
Obama survived by placating them. He may even, though it is far too soon to tell, have narrowed the odds on his re-election. If he has simultaneously repositioned himself as a centrist and highlighted Republican extremism, as Bill Clinton did to propel himself to a 1996 landslide after Newt Gingrich shut down the federal government, it may yet be seen as a masterstroke.
Yet sometimes intricate political calculation feels somewhere between despicably small-minded and blindingly irrelevant. Sometimes, there is nothing for it but to be clumpingly simplistic, and crudely state that those of us who fell in love with the promise of Obama the candidate can no longer blind ourselves to the reality of Obama the President. Governing in prose is one thing. Preferring weasel words to governing at all is another.
This column comes in sorrow rather than anger. He is, as I said, a good man, and who believed that one of those could win the White House? But no more than noble intent and high intellect is goodness enough. As the age of American hegemony implodes, war is being waged in the US between progressive and reactionary forces. In allowing the latter such an unmitigated triumph, he first retreated, then first went missing in action, and finally resurfaced to claim victory. All politicians do that, you might say, and therein lies the peculiarly tragic nature of this presidency. What was Obama, after all, if not the alternative to all politicians?
He could have drawn a line in the sand. He, who claimed he'd rather be a transformational one-term president than a two-term duffer, could have said, "You didn't elect me to preside over a brutal diminution of the rights of the needy, and I won't have it" and risked himself in the fight to spread the pain between poor and wealthy. He might have lost and become unelectable – even been forced to stand aside in 2012 for Hillary Clinton.
And would that be such a terrible thing? Hillary is not, one suspects, a good woman. There is little, if anything, she would not baulk at in pursuit of power. But whatever her moral elasticity, Hillary is a street-fighter, and would never have surrendered to the Tea Party's pulverising nastiness and juggernaut stupidity. If the Republicans take the Senate next November and have control of both houses, who would you back to defend Obamacare?
Perhaps even at this late stage, liberal outrage at this repugnant deal offers her an opening for a primary challenge. If she stood and won on the, "I told you he wasn't up to it last time, but would you listen?" platform, the irony that would accompany Obama's cute face out of the Oval Office would be as depressing as any in memory.
The man elected as the peacenik, ultra-liberal enemy of entrenched poverty would be remembered as the ruthless Bin Laden assassin who presided over the most vicious assault on the poor in modern US history. Whatever the future holds for the one-time reincarnation of JFK, tomorrow no one other than Michelle will be tempted to sing "Happy Birthday Mr President" in the breathily adoring tones of Marilyn Monroe.
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126 Comments so far
Show AllTo say Obama was 'elected as the peacenik' is not to say he was a peacenik. The public perception of him during the campaign focused, in ignorance, on his hope and change rhetoric, which allowed the electorate, desperately seeking hope and change, to read into his rhetoric what they desired. The vast majority of those who voted for him did not study him, did not read his books, did not dig into his background and his stands on issues: the vast majority of the electorate never does those things, conditioned as they are to judge politicians based on sound bytes and clever propaganda from public relations experts. The electorate believed he would end the wars and would fight the foul stench of modern Republicanism, that he would battle to reclaim America from the barbarians on the right. He was elected as something he was not because America is a childish nation whose denizens refuse to think, to reason, to do the hard work of keeping a republic free and democratic. There is a price to be paid for such belief. Obama was indeed 'elected as a peacenik', but by a people willfully blind and willfully ignorant.
"For this was a heartbreaking act of skin-saving cowardice."
How can these "progressives" be so clueless at this late date, after all of the evidence before them, that Obama's Con i.e., to set up, the biggest redistribution of wealth this country will ever see, has NOTHING to do with cowardice, and has EVERYTHING to do with being the current point man for this emergent US oligarchy. He of course, is also playing a big role on the global stage, for the new shiny global fascists. He is in that club.
Agreed sir_hue. Obama doesn't necessarily lack intelligence, what he lacks is a soul.
The title is pretty good.
this article was really funny...
too bad the reality isn't...
dubet,
NO! It is funny. Too many wanted change and voted for change. It will be even funnier after 2013 as 71% “FR” will probably reelect Obama. Day in and day out we gather here and whines. Like George Carlin said, many here do not have the right to whines, you voted and I did not, so I have the right to whine. I stayed home but did not masturbate!
Hey, sivasm!
while I appreciate your enthusiasm, I cannot hold voters accountable for elections, as that would contradict my basic position that politics is a fraudulent front for crime...
I don't put any weight on a 'vote', so don't blame 'voters' when 'elected' officials turn out to be criminals...
I don't give voters credit, either, for outstanding 'elected' officials, those that legislate above and beyond expectation...
then again, I can't remember when that issue has ever come up...
We have to allow that Mr Norman is writing from the UK, for a UK readership, and maybe getting his ideas from whatever US TV commentary is available over there. He obviously doesn't read commentary on CD otherwise his view of the President's personality might be a tad less rosy.
"What was Obama, after all, if not the alternative to all politicians?" he writes.
What was he? What is he? For me it's still not crystal clear exactly what Obama is - but whatever it is it ain't good!
"What was Obama, after all, if not the alternative to all politicians?" he writes.
In my view Obama was and is a man without a self. He is whatever the prevailing winds, by which he is driven, are blowing down on his back.
Can anyone answer me this? Section 4 of the 14th amendment basically says that the US is consitutionally obligated to pay off its debts. Now if the Tea Baggers were trying to force the US into a default on its debt weren't they going against/undermining the very constitution that they are sworn to uphold? And so Obomba as the chief executive could go after them on those grounds?
Yes.
He could keep the debts paid off -if even just interest payments- by Executive Order, then sue the House Majority leadership -under the 14th Amendment- to force them to enact a law meeting the Treasury's debt obligations. He could also defend himself from a suit by them for keeping the Treasury running by Executive Order by using the 14th Amendment.
Doing so would allow him to:
1. Keep the Government -and entitlements- running on his own. Thus providing a strong campaign tool and justification for the "Unitary Executive" concept that Obama is working toward. A popular balance to the Executive War in Libya.
2. Force the House Majority Leadership to escalate their extortion attempt through the courts while the debts are yet met and the Government yet functions. Even if they backed off, their methods could be exposed for the truly despicable lies and manipulations that they are.
3. Force the Corporatist/Imperialist/Right-wing Supreme Court to either fully exposed themselves as the corrupt ghouls that they are by supporting the House Majority Leadership, or back down and get knocked down a few pegs.
All of which would not only secure him another term in the White House, but also likely reverse the losses his Blue Party suffered in Congress and the States last year in next year's election, and begin rebuilding that popular faith and trust that gave the Blue Party the lion's share of its power since 1932.
The fact that he didn't do any of this and almost for sure won't constitutes fairly compelling evidence that he DOESN'T WANT any of the above-listed benefits of such a strategy.
His true colors are left strikingly bared -for everyone not getting the wool pulled over their eyes by the likes of Matthew Norman.
-matti.
Thanks for the good detailed explaination
First of all, for most of my adult life I have been a far left progressive and, as an expatriate resident of Costa Rica, I support the objectives (if not all the methods) of Messrs. Castro, Chavez, Morales and Correa. That said, the s.o.b. Obama must go. I was born in the last years of FDR and I have lived through a succession of progressively miserable U.S. presidents including other mass murderers like Truman, Johnson and Nixon and incompetents like Carter and W. But Obama is the worst of all. Although I thoroughly despised the objectives of Bush 43, at least his philosophy and policies were explicit. Like it or not, what he said was what you got. OTOH, Obama is equally sociopathic but far more dangerous because his neoliberal agenda is cleverly hidden beneath a veneer of "centrism". It's time to send this bastard to the trash heap. No Republican could be worse because no Republican will be able to actually achieve his or her goals thanks to a vigorous Democratic opposition that doesn't exist with a Democratic president.
I never thought I would live to see a president more evil and devious than W, especially a Democrat, although labeling Obama a Democrat is like calling North Korea a Democratic People's Republic.
Wow! I am dumbfounded! How could anyone write such an empty article, even from across the pond?
Yes, Barack Obama may well be "remembered as the ruthless Bin Laden assassin who presided over [the assassination of many others too, and] the most vicious assault on the poor [and the middle class] in modern US history," if that is Obama is remembered for very long at all.
I'm sure that a person could say more about this pabulum, but I am still too dumbfounded and incredulous. I don't want to waste any more time attempting to think about nothing. I am still having a lot of trouble just getting beyond the question how could anyone write such an article?
The answer seems both obvious and unbelievable at the same time.
He is in fact a complete idiot!
It makes no logical sense to primary Obama with Hillary, somebody of roughly the same ilk.
I would love to see somebody primaring Obama, don't get me wrong, but it would have to be an actual leftist, not a pretend one. It would also help enormously if he/she were black, and in fact preferably a "she": Barbara Lee, Cynthia McKinney, ...any others?
I believe Cynthia McKinney ran in 2008 as the Green Party candidate, but strangely she seemed to use her candidacy as a platform to endorse Obama (weird). One would hope that now she sees things differently.
There is nothing I see or read that explains the behavior we have all witnessed of late. A world gone mad. So let me run this by you good folks who post on this site. We live in the age of small print, the age of massive mendacity, the age of institutional lying. Groups of people living and working together need structure and strong leadership to be successful. The glue that holds a community together is trust. We need to trust our leaders, our doctors, our teachers, our lawmakers, and our builders. We are and have been lied to on so many levels, at such a high frequency, that we are collectively suffering some kind of a physiological cultural breakdown. I think that as a result of this massive pervasive constant lying that we are all somehow withdrawing into ourselves like turtles withdrawing into their shells. An instinctive last resort defensive reaction. The lies start at a very early age, with the likes of Santa or the tooth fairy. I think we are damaged in ways we don't understand by all this lying. Mr Obama is a good example of the modern professional lair, that exist today in every possible aspect of the human experience. This is abuse, like the constant threat physical violence it creates a form of stress that changes the way we think and act, it changes us.Yes some had hope Mr Obama, they hoped that your slick talk was not the lie that they knew it was. Oh and by the way this article sucks, and that's no lie
the lies are huge, no doubt...
the biggest lie? that your vote counters their violence...
I stopped reading after this line:
"things such as his fiscal capitulation".
it wasn't capitulation. it was collaboration.
Does any other website you read receive such Pungent Responses to its essays as does Common Dreams?!
pungent articles beget pungent responses...
shit in, shit out...
Wait.
There are OTHER websites? ;)
Why do people insist on saying he's a "good man" as if he's simply misguided, or too nice? Why can't we simply say he's the devil incarnate? A deceiver, a demon?
NB: Now that I HAVE read the rest of the comments (see below), I moved this reply originally posted to corvo and Mairead's initial comments at the top of the thread. I'm glad to find that most others reacted similarly; it's always nice to be validated.
_________________
I agree with you and Mairead, corvo-- and I haven't even read the rest of the comments yet.
"[A] gentle, decent... man"? "[A] good man"?
_________________
"To the guffaws of assembled media celebrities, President Barack Obama used his monologue Saturday night before the Washington Correspondents Association dinner to joke about using Predator drones, a weapon that has killed hundreds of civilians on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and enraged millions throughout the region.
Obama’s joke was ostensibly aimed at the pop group Jonas Brothers, who were among the large number of show business types invited to the annual affair. The President began by noting that his two pre-teen daughters were fans of the boy band and went on to warn: '…but boys, don’t get any ideas. Two words for you: predator drones. You will never see it coming. You think I’m joking?'
Like virtually all of the supposed humor employed at such affairs, Obama’s joke was directed to Washington 'insiders,' government officials, politicians of both parties and members of the media elite itself, all of whom would know what he was talking about and could generally be expected to find nothing amiss in his remarks.
The Predator drone has become a hallmark of the Obama dministration’s bloody escalation of the nearly nine-year-old war in Afghanistan and its expansion across the border into Pakistan."*
* Courtesy of: http://www.houseofpaine.org/bonziebean/blog/?p=294
_________________
And FWIW, I'd add this as "strike three":
"...stand aside in 2012 for Hillary Clinton.
And would that be such a terrible thing? Hillary is not, one suspects, a good woman. There is little, if anything, she would not baulk at in pursuit of power. But whatever her moral elasticity, Hillary is a street-fighter, and would never have surrendered to the Tea Party's pulverising nastiness and juggernaut stupidity. If the Republicans take the Senate next November and have control of both houses, who would you back to defend Obamacare?"
I have neither energy nor inclination to forge a big hammer to pound this bent little nail, regardless of how Thor it makes me feel.
So I'll just leave it by observing that this Norman pillock is another of those addled post-modern "realpolitik" pseudo-pragmatists, par for the conventional inside-politics course, who can blithely rhetorically recommend a not-good amoral powermonger like Clinton as an "effective" improvement over Obama.
It wouldn't surprise me if he's a sought-after and favored guest on the UK "talking heads" shows-- the equivalent of "Washington Week in Review", "The PBS News Hour", or "The Charlie Rose Show", if such abominations exist across the water.
And BTW, as long as we're resurrecting the preposterous marketing hype that would have us see Obama as the Second Coming of JFK-- which, sadly, was encouraged by Caroline Kennedy during her aborted attempt to belatedly jump-start a political career-- we might as well note that Obama was also touted as The Second Coming of Abraham Lincoln.
You know, with his "team of rivals" and all. [In Moe Szyslak voice]: Thank you very much, Doris Kearns Goodwin!
I really should read the comments before posting, since i will no doubt be repetitious. But, what the heck......
I think it is a silly article. There. I've said it! I wonder why the author didn't think that Obama was a politician - or an alternative to politicians....Or maybe he still doesn't think he is one. He still thinks Mr. O is a good and sensitive man. Or something along those lines. Is it because he likes Obama's face? I never figured out what he was driving at with the Orwell quote.
I will admit that obama's sleaze level has surpassed what even i thought was obvious during the campaign.
A good decent gentle man.
The victims of Obama authorized drone attacks feel his gentleness
Seniors and the poor will feel his decency soon
But yes he is a good servant to the oligarchs
it's just semantics
From the standpoint of someone who was actually interested in leveling (restoring) the playing field for millions of Americans, Obama got dealt one of the best hands imaginable.
Just think of what FDR did with a very similar hand.
It's not that Obama's hand was bad, it's that he was simply not interested in playing that game.
Obama was dealt a low ball hand (and could have played it to brilliant effect), but instead chose to play high ball (and stack the deck to make sure he got what he wanted).
Great article. It could have been less gentle and more sarcastic.
I voted, supported, gave money to elect Obama. Since his election, I'm no longer a registered Democrat after over 40 years. I wanted and expected a fighter to go after the Republicans and the Corporations that controlled and bankrolled them. Instead, what I have found is a man who is much more satisfied with "compromise", with reaching out to the otherside of the aisle, A man who's "nice". I didn't vote for nice. I wanted a tiger that would rip the throat out of the smug GOP. This President is nice, a family man...a man willing to compromise at the expense of those who elected him. This next go round for the Presidency....I will be looking to the extreme far left for my choice for president....I want a tiger to fight for me and the millions in this country who have had and continue to not have a voice in their own country. "Nice" just doesn't cut it any more!
You can't make friends with the guy who is beating the shit out of you, not right then. First stomp his gourd, THEN tell him the conditions of friendship.
Ditto. Tiger, shark, anything that has sharp teeth. I expected a dragon would put things right and start correcting the immoral compass that has hijacked this country for the last 30 years: prosecuting the cabal of profiteers, traitors, media bullies and propagandists, congressional whores and hypocrites who stopped representing us, the 5 morally-corrupt fascist "justices," the torturers, the wall street mafia, and on and on.
I too got taken in by the nice, decent, compassionate (aka political left) persona. I started doubting during the "public option," and stopped being in denial during the "bush tax cuts extention" obscenity, last fall. And after this last "debt ceiling episode" capitulation (or I should say betrayal) I am now at the grieving stage.
The empire no longer has clothes and neither does its emperor.
welcome back to both you guys. we need everyone.just make sure you resist the temptation to return to the fold in 2012...:)
I would post a comment here, but then I'd be wasting my time.
Ah...metacommenting. ;)
The same two words Obama mentioned so facetiously that future suitors should keep in mind for dating his daughters when they come of age are what I most remember about what type of man Obama truly is in the Presidency regardless his superb rhetorical skill:
"Predator drones."
That told me all I need to know.
he, with his name and being black, is safe. safe on the right side of those predator drones he loves.... who is on the other side? mlk, malcolm x, the 500,000 indonesians killed for the sake of u.s. corporate profits....and many, many more........
Obama, like the stage actor, is not what you see him to be. He is an full member of the ruling elite. This ruling elite does not care about America, or Americans. He is a Globalist working to downgrade the USA and its people.
Obama sees America as a trouble maker, and rouge in the world. Obama is committed to taking power from the USA and disseminating it to rising stars like, China.
Obama is a shill of the world rulers.
Personally, I find it funny, in an odd sort of way, that Obama is a black man. The blacks have finally gotten back at white America.
Pay back is a bitch.
Obama: The man is anything but decent. He is a monster, no less. I cannot stand to see his face and I never listen to him speak, it is too revolting. I read about what he said later. He is despicable and a heinous criminal and belongs in jail. While I don't believe in capital punishment, I would not be unhappy if he was executed. He is cruel and has done more unjustified and premeditated killing than any criminal executed thus far. The same is true of Bush but this guy is more revolting.
Where's the lone gunman or 2 or 3, when you need one?
Another Brit or at least someone writing for a British publication who doesn't understand US politis worth a damn is mouthing off. Gee. Cut the BS. You like Ed "the man" Miliband don't get it. I know he doesn't get British politics, but you don't get US politics either.
"The President hits the half century tomorrow with the handsome, placcid features he deserves. It is the fizzog of a gentle, decent if intellectually arrogant man, untormented by the self-loathing that made Nixon look so cruelly vulpine, and free from the lupine seediness that hinted at Bill Clinton's appetites long before that woman Miss Lewinsky's blue dress went to the DNA analysis section....."
To be vulpine is to appear fox like. To be lupine is to appear wolf like. And what, pray tell, is a fizzog?
Neither Random House, American Heritage, nor Roget's gives me any clue. An entry in the Urban Dictionary says the word fizzog refers simply to the face - the superficial features on the front of the skull from forehead to chin, as in a facade, a mask, if you will.
Although it's been three decades since I lived awhile in merry ole England, I suspect this reference by Matthew Norman to Barack Obama's fizzog is a disparaging British vernacular usage. Before those of us on this side of the Atlantic pond get our knickers all in a circular firing squad hyperbolic twist, it may be worth re-reading the above passage the way the author most likely intended it.
"Governing in prose is one thing. Preferring weasle words to governing at all is something else."
Yes indeed it is. Being far more articulate than one's Oval Office predecessor means nothing, when you perpetuate his destructive policies and incrementally, yet systematically betray those who elected you precisely for the purpose of reversing course.
"Whatever the future holds for the one-time reincarnation of JFK, tomorrow no one other than Michelle will be tempted to sing 'Happy Birthday Mr. President' in the breathily adoring tones of Marilyn Monroe."
Yes indeed again.
Mr. Norman has a pathetic view of what it means to be a good man, but he's absolutely right about our current President's gentle, decent if intellectually arrogant fizzog.
Bill from Saginaw
The Urban Dictionary isn't strong on etymology, Bill, so it doesn't point out that the term is surely a slang corruption of "physiognomy".
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I would think you'd be familiar with the quondam BBC/PBS series "Rumpole of the Bailey", "a British television series created and written by the British writer and barrister John Mortimer, QC which starred Leo McKern as Horace Rumpole, an ageing London barrister who defends any and all clients."*
Among other things, McKern's own rumpled fizzog makes him ideal for the role.
It may be available on YouTube or elsewhere, because if you don't know it you ought to check it out.
Anyway, "fizzog" made me think of a "Rumpole" episode in which Rumpole constantly winces upon hearing younger, clued-in members of the firm exclaiming that this or that is "Absolutely brill!"
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumpole_of_the_Bailey
Obama is not black. He is genetically half black. The only term I know for this is mulatto and I mean no offense. I respect mulattos who deserve respect as I do with all people. America's first black president will have lived the experience of being a black man or woman in the USA and born from black Americans who also had that experience. The Kenyan father had no such experience. Living in Singapore as a brown man is NOT equivalent to living as a black man in the USA. This man isn't black at all as it feels to be black for a true BLACK AMERICAN. Obama's papa was not descended from US slavery, the first black american must be if he is to be considered the first American black president.
I always wonder if our present President was Caucasian all these discussions would never have existed.
On the other hand if Hillary had gotten the nod, paradise is a farce.
"This column comes in sorrow rather than anger. He is, as I said, a good man..."
No, Mr. Norman. Mr. Obama is not a good man but rather a good boy, and that's what his major problem is.
"a good man"... this is a psy-ops phrase to catch british readers. it's to take their minds away from the political and economic realities also true in britain. he also uses the word good in regard to hillary...she is perhaps not good, but knows how to fight...orwell is "the godliest of lefty seers"...well done subliminal manipulation...aimed at mostly british readers of the independent....
Did Mr. Norman vote for Obama? If so, we can safely ignore anything he has to say about politics. The same holds true for virtually all progressive pundits.
I’m somewhat surprised at the depth of the hostility toward Obama in these posts. My feelings about his performance as President have gone from disappointment to hopelessness and now to utter despair.
I still don’t think he has bad intentions or that he’s a bad person.
But he doesn’t seem to realize the position he’s in.
He wasn’t put in the White House to be the most popular boy on campus.
He was sent there to fight for the American people against the forces of darkness.
But he doesn’t know how to fight. He doesn’t seem to grasp that he is in the colosseum surrounded by snarling beasts that want to rip his head off. He doesn’t seem to realize that he has millions of people counting on him and that doing right by those people is by far the most important thing he will ever do in his entire life.
I’ve been hoping all along that he would wake up, but I don’t think it’s going to happen.
dux,
You are utterly wrong, 71% of the Dims liberals "FR" still think he is doing a good job. You even said "I still do not think he has bad intentions or that he is a bad person."
I do not understand what you mean! Do you mean, bailed out the banks while million’s homeowners suffer, target kills with drones, assassinate US citizens, give away entitlements and so much more means he still do not have bad intention or bad person? He lied repeatedly and you believe him?
Are you out of your mind, or just plainly "FR"? Believe me the words “FR” apply exactly to you.
I am unaware of any recent poll of registered Democrats reflecting 71% of Obama's base thought he was "still doing a good job." I don't think he had approval ratings that high even in the aftermath of Abottabad. Regardless, the debt deal sell out is the last straw.
Bill from Saginaw