The Willy Loman presidency
He just wants to be well liked:
A White House official conceded today that Obama would have to weather anger from liberals for a while.
More worrisome, officials said, was the growing belief that Obama’s brand is being tarnished…They believe that Obama’s favorability rating declines, largely from independents (and within that group, women), can be reversed if he reminds these voters of the bipartisan instincts in his bones.
Another Pew poll finding underscores a second White House strategy: because conservatives are paying more attention to the health care debate than liberals, the White House needs to double down on its efforts to convince liberals that passing health care will be a major accomplishment…
Privately, White House aides have communicated to the House leadership that the onus on changing minds about the public plan is on Congress, not on the president.
The goal here is not to pass healthcare reform, or indeed to effect any kind of reform at all. It’s not about doing anything. It’s about popularity. It’s about Obama’s brand.
What finally emerges from the Congressional sausage-grinder is irrelevant; all that matters is that it be seen as something to Obama’s credit. Some good thing that he helped to make happen, and that people will like him for.
He just wants to be liked. Well liked.
As I and other Obama critics have pointed out before, the most interesting — and disturbing — feature of Obama’s career is its emptiness. There is nothing there but the career itself. He’s been running for office since Harvard Law, if not before. Each job was just a stepping stone to the next job, a sinecure to fill time until his next stop on the cursus honorum. That’s why he never accomplished much of anything as a law review editor or “community organizer” or state senator. Even the Illinois bills that are credited to him were incubated and shepherded by others, then handed to Obama on a platter as part of the machine’s plan to elevate him to the U.S. Senate.
But all this has been said before.
Despite the title of the post, I’m not really going to delve into a deep psychological study of our 44th president. I’m just wondering aloud about something I’ve been musing over since last year: when someone spends his whole life running for office, without actually having any political convictions or goals that he feels driven to accomplish — aside from the King Of The Hill satisfaction of winning — what will he do once he makes it to the White House?
I think we’re seeing the answer. I think Obama is going to do what he’s been doing all his life: be friendly, act charming, keep his favorables high, make people like him. That’s probably all he really knows how to do.
He’s already the president; I think now he’s just shooting to be a popular president. The most well-liked president ever!
21 Responses to “The Willy Loman presidency”
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Modem X says:
Think he’s just looking for Facebook “friends”?
August 19th, 2009 at 11:08 pm EST -
Lynnerkat says:
Gotta beat Bill (and Hillary’s approval rating).
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Unree says:
The President seems confident he can manipulate public opinion well no matter what happens on his watch. He does seem worried about a visible national disaster, which I think he would define as (a) a 1929-level stock market crash or (b) a terrorist attack on U.S. soil with more casualties than 9/11. These two he doesn’t want and will work a bit to fend off. Anything else he feels he can deal with. He’ll stick with compromise/bipartisanship too, more out of indifference than anything else.
Yup, I’m being repetitive, having said as much a couple of days ago on another thread here.
And I agree he doesn’t give a rat’s ass about the outcome re health care. Anything that happens or fails to happen in Congress will be spun.
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Aspen says:
They believe that Obama’s favorability rating declines, largely from independents (and within that group, women), can be reversed if he reminds these voters of the bipartisan instincts in his bones.
I hate how “Independent’ is always equated with being mid-way between a Democrat and a Republican.
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myiq2xu says:
I would be happy to vote for Obama as the most popular one-term POTUS ever.
Ecstatic even.
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Swannie says:
I thought this piece from Peggy Noonan
titled….
From ‘Yes, We Can’ to ‘No! Don’t!’ Obama turns out to be brilliant at becoming, not being, president….
was thoughtful http://online.wsj.com/article/declarations.htmlhere is an excerpt :
Also, something odd. When Mr. Obama stays above the fray, above the nitty-gritty of specifics, when he confines his comments on health care to broad terms, he more and more seems . . . pretty slippery. In the town hall he seemed aware of this, and he tried to be very specific about the need for this aspect of a plan, and the history behind that proposal. And yet he seemed even more slippery. When he took refuge in the small pieces of his argument, he lost the major threads; when he addressed the major threads, he seemed almost to be conceding that the specifics don’t hold.
When you seem slippery both in the abstract and the particular, you are in trouble.
And a good friend of mine that I know from the world of indie music.. is now doing a video op ed titled ” Lower class, middle class, upper class and government class ”
If Obama wants to be liked, perhaps he ought to stop being so separatist and divisive. I wonder if he even gets that he is . I personally think he is just that obtuse.
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yttik says:
I think the Onion got it right:
Congress Deadlocked Over How To Not Provide Health Care
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Matt Osborne says:
Health care reform is a long race. The teabagging has jumped the shark, the teabaggers are being exposed for idiots, and Obama’s not even winded.
At the end of this thing, the GOP has no alternative to offer to the public option. No one’s falling for co-ops and the GOP says they won’t vote for co-ops anyway.
Rumors of the death of H.R. 3200 have been greatly exaggerated.
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Briar says:
Bipartisan is one of the most delusive and treacherous terms in politics. I rank it with “moderate” and “centrist” (and in the UK, “unpolitical”). All these terms mean one thing: “conservative”.
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myiq2xu says:
Rumors of the death of H.R. 3200 have been greatly exaggerated.
Well then let’s drive a stake through its heart and start over with some real health care reform.
(and this time leave single payer on the table)
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m Andrea says:
Er, only insecure people need the validation which popularity brings. So how does an insecure and dominating personality react when his popularity declines?
My guess is that he’ll either get his handlers to whine about racism or attempt to destroy those who don’t wuv him any more.
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sharon says:
I read Noonan’s piece, and agreed, just as I do with Violet here. This was exactly what HRC warned against: yes, he’s an appealing, likeable, personable candidate. Maybe he ’spoke’ to you (image: clouds opening, hand of God coming down on the Annointed One, and all that). BUT can he do the job? Can he handle the presidency?
I know everyone on this site saw the same thing I did: he may be more cute and endearing, but she had the chops for the job. Thus we supported her.
You gotta remember that we are dealing with Gen Y voters who backed him in droves. This is the same gen that thinks they ought to graduate college into senior management positions, if not C-level slots. They circle back home to live with mommy and daddy when they fail to pay rent but acquire $200 Gucci bags. The real world is tough! Oh darn.
THAT’S who thought he was gonna’ deliver the world to them on a platter because they’re entitled to it. So of course they preferred him to the ‘roll up the sleeves and get to work’ candidate HRC.
Gen X (of which I am one) also liked him, but not as much. We’re often a bit pessimistic, but we also started the internet boom, love Whole Foods even though we don’t know what you do with organic kohlrabi, and so hey, anything progressive is for us. He looked progressive, and uber cool and all that.
But as we see, he can’t do the job. We all knew that from the start, but now everyone else is finding out. So his presidency may well be Hoover’s, rather than Carter’s, in that he wants to be liked so much he plunges the country into peril with silly, albeit popular, promises.
The poetic justice in all this is the internet age - information travels so fast now that when he missteps, we know it and are talking about it within seconds. The townhalls, the blogosphere - they are organizing so fast in response, and I don’t think this has ever happened before with such speed. I like it, actually, that Americans are starting to hold politicians accountable before they even pass legislation.
But net net, Violet’s right: this man’s ego is what propels him forward, and he must be liked at all costs. Therefore, his presidency is about Obama the image, and very little to do with delivering real hope and change and all that.
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Monchichipox says:
Violet I was wondering if anyone has reported your blog to flag@whitehouse.gov. I was hoping for some sarcastic, scathing writing about that episode from you.
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Sasha, CA says:
I hate how “Independent’ is always equated with being mid-way between a Democrat and a Republican.
Me too. I’m sure my SO and I aren’t the only “Independents” who left the Democratic Party because it has become way too conservative for us.
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sister of ye says:
Gosh, Peggy Noonan finally figured Obama out. [twirls finger] Big whoop. The time to state the blindingly obvious was 18 months ago. Same goes for Taibi, Greenwald and a host of other “how could he have lied to us?” lamenters.
I never could see charm or endearingness in either Bush or Obama. Insdeed, I find both highly irritating. And that’s on the good days.
Interesting that we elected two presidents in a row with Major Daddy Issues. I’d guess that big corporate backers figure that such insecure men are easier to manipulate.
Both men made me want to slap them upside the head and say: Grow the fuck up! It’s not all about you. The presidency isn’t meant to be anyone’s personal therapy session. You want gold stars, send someone for a box from the dollar store. Meantime, could you please get to that “promote the general welfare” work the Constitution calls for?
Sure we can’t convince Obama that Mr. Universe is the next step up and he should resign to take that vital post?
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RKMK says:
Heh, sister of ye. So much word.
Compare it to Hills rocking and rolling it, policy-stylez, he just looks increasingly pathetic.
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monchichipox says:
did you catch the Obama’s latest speech? He called the opposition all “wee weed up” is he losing it?
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paper doll says:
I’ll never forget it when he was here in Pa during the primaries and hadn’t spoken to the press in 10 days. He was at a diner when a reporter asked him a question and Obama said
” can I just eat my waffle?”
That him . I don’t think he reads what they give him before he reads it off the teleprompter…he doesn’t seem present when he’s speacking…. he just wants to eat his waffle
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JLawson says:
“did you catch the Obama’s latest speech? He called the opposition all “wee weed up” is he losing it?”
Monchichipox - you’re making the possibly invalid assumption that he had it in the first place.
I can’t imagine the Bushes, or Clinton, or Reagan, or even CARTER using the phrase ‘all wee-weed up’ in a public speech. (Or a private one, for that matter - except the annual Journalism roast, perhaps. But that’s expected in that forum…)
What more proof do we need that this bozo just isn’t ready for the Clown College inside the Beltway?
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Lux says:
“Despite the title of the post, I’m not really going to delve into a deep psychological study of our 44th president.”
My educated guess is Obama’s psychological profile can be summed up in three words: narcissistic personality disorder. That scares me.
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Msakel says:
Great posts here! i loved the very extremely presidential neology. El Presidente is so eloquent, so sophisticated, so knowledgeable.
But didn’t Obamer seem a bit wee wee’d upped?
*Fourth-grader lingo reigns in the White House of horrors
