THE PRESIDENT NEEDS TO STOP PONTIFICATING & START MOTIVATING

…President Hollande of France & President Obama

 

Today, the president doesn’t project that he feels convinced about his strategy for dealing with Daesh.

 

When those of us that constantly follow what’s going on in Washington, there develops a kind of “sixth sense“ about understanding the public’s feeling for supporting or rejecting what our nation’s leaders are doing.

 

Now I will be the first to admit that from his first term in office, I have been a supporter of the current president.  But I have to say that over the past weeks and months I have had a gut level of concern, and it is appearing I am not alone.

 

This feeling had all been a bit confusing for me personally.  That is up until the Post columnist Dana Milbank wrote his recent column where he called President Obama, “President Oh-bummer”. 

 

In the article, Milbank properly criticizes the president’s recent actions with the following comments;

 

“The two presidents stood in the East Room on Tuesday afternoon, united in their goal of defeating the Islamic State but separated by a stylistic gulf as vast as the Atlantic.

 

On the left, facing the cameras, was François Hollande - war president. He spoke of ‘cowardly murderers’ who ‘dishonor humanity,’ of a ‘relentless determination to fight terrorism everywhere and anywhere,’ of ‘an implacable joint response,’ of ‘hunting down their leaders’ and ‘taking back the land.’  On the right stood Barack Obama, “President Oh-bummer”.

 

Defeating the Islamic State? ‘That’s going to be a process that involves hard, methodical work. It’s not going to be something that happens just because suddenly we take a few more airstrikes.’

 

A political settlement in Syria?  ‘It’s going to be hard. And we should not be under any illusions.’

 

Could the Paris attacks have been prevented?  ‘That’s hard — that’s a hard thing to track. . . . That’s a tough job.’

 

Obama, in Turkey last week, responded to those who believe he isn’t tough enough on the Islamic State. ‘Some of them seem to think that if I was just more bellicose in expressing what we’re doing, that that would make a difference,’ he said.

 

Well, yes. Tough talk won’t defeat terrorists — but it will rally a nation.

 

It’s no mere coincidence that the previously unpopular Hollande’s support in France has increased during his forceful response to the attacks.  All of this while Obama’s poll numbers were going down.”

 

Yes, I believe that Mr. Milbank really hit a mark that explains my confusion of what I have been feeling about our president.

 

This was made even clearer on a recent Morning Joe program.  Those in the discussion group brought up this same column by Dana Milbank and they had the same observations.  But this group went even further.  All those attending in that morning group pretty much agreed on two issues dealing with the president.

 

First, that the president hasn’t been motivating the American public and he has been very discouraging in his comments regarding our dealings with the Islamic State.  President Obama has just been too still and totally contained, while during his visit, the French President Hollande’s strong and sweeping gestures kept setting off the bursts of the photographer’s cameras.

 

The second issue that was agreed by the Morning Joe group was their comparison between President Obama and Donald Trump.

 

“What you say?”  There is something about these two individuals that is the same for both “The Donald”, and President Obama?

 

The short answer is “yes”. 

 

The reality is neither of these individuals has ever admitted out-loud that they were ever wrong.  You never hear Donald Trump admitting that he was ever wrong, such as his comments about the Jersey City - 9/11 Muslim celebrations.  Also, when did you ever hear Barack Obama admit that he was wrong?  When the president called ISIS the J.V. team, has he ever said that he was wrong then?  When he drew the red line that the Syrian leader had crossed, while the US did nothing, did the president ever admit being wrong?  Nope, not once.

 

But my personal confusion about my feelings over the past weeks is that lately it’s been hard to see if the president has the sense of urgency that seems to be required in America’s attitude toward Daesh.

 

It’s not that Obama lacks the emotion.  The president had blinked back tears when the French President Hollande spoke of the young American woman killed in the Paris attacks.  And the president spoke movingly about the need for the US to admit Syrian refugees. But when he speaks of war and terrorism, it seems only to play down and reassure the public. “My fellow Americans, let’s remember we faced greater threats to our way of life before.” 

 

Really Mr. President....and what would those greater threats for all Americans be today? 

 

Reassurance is important, but the president needs to leave the people feeling that, as the president, he has a good handle on the situation.  That’s just not happening.

 

When asked if there was a deadline for ousting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, both presidents had the same policy: no timetable. But what they said afterwards, and the way they said it, highlighted their differences.

 

Hollande spoke of a new era. “There is a new mind-set now,” Hollande said. “And those who believed that we could wait” now realize “the risk is everywhere . . . . We, therefore, must act now.”

 

As Mr. Milbank wrote, “Then came President Oh-bummer:  ‘Syria has broken down,’ he said. ‘And it is going to be a difficult, long, methodical process to bring back together various factions within Syria to maintain a Syrian state.’  Maybe you can motivate people when you sound so discouraging. But it’s hard.”

 

This is all so true.  And it explains how many of us in the US feel today.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2015