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Obama, come
to work
by Maureen Dowd
Excerpt:
Once more, he has willfully and inexplicably
resisted fulfilling a signal part of his job: being a prism
in moments of fear and pride, reflecting what
Americans feel so they know he gets it.
“This president needs to tell BP, ’I’m your daddy,’
“ scolded James Carville, a New Orleans resident,
as he called Barack Obama’s response to Louisiana’s
new watery heartbreak “lackadaisical.”
At a press conference, Obama said Malia had asked
him, as he shaved, “Did you plug the hole yet, Daddy?”
(That hole should be plugged with a junk-shot
of Glenn Beck, who crudely mocked the adorable Malia.)
Oddly, the good father who wrote so poignantly
about growing up without a daddy scorns the paternal aspect of the presidency.
In the campaign, Obama’s fight flagged to the
point that his donors openly upbraided him. In the Oval, he waited
too long to express outrage and offer leadership
on A.I.G., the banks, the bonuses, the job loss and mortgage fears,
the Christmas underwear bomber, the death panel
scare tactics, the ugly name-calling of Tea Party protesters.
Too often it feels as though Barry is watching
from a balcony, reluctant to enter the fray until the clamor of
the crowd forces him to come down. The pattern
is perverse. The man whose presidency is rooted in his
ability to inspire withholds that inspiration
when it is most needed.
I know you Democrats hate it when I criticize
Obama,
but it seems the LAST thing Obama is is a fighter.
Why is he so timid?
Why can't he take some decisive action?
He loves to smile and say, "Things
will get better,"
but that usually takes action and Obama's just
not into that.