Does America Have A President Right Now?

Update: Still more analysis.

Update 2: More agreement. Hey, it's a concensus!!

Update: Also see Melissa Clouthier. She reached some similar conclusions independently.

Secretary of DHS, Janet Napolitano, embarrassed herself and the administration on television today.

Meanwhile, there is rioting and people are dying in the streets of one of America's key antagonists in the world, Iran. Isn't there something, or someone, missing from this equation right about now?

Yes, there's a fellow elected and now assigned to sit in the Oval Office. I'm not disputing that. And that someone certainly has been on camera enough. Yet, even before this latest terrorism event and Iran, I've been getting a sense of America without a President in some important ways.

Is there someone, somewhere with whom we all believe the buck really stops? Really? That there's someone, somewhere who, if called upon to shoulder the sometimes all but impossible burdens that go along with the job, is simply going to step up to let us know it's him?

I don't have that sense at all.

Recently, we've watched American-fabric changing legislation hotly debated back and forth in Congress. Do the people have a firm and solid sense where this someone stands on the particulars, what it is he will fight for and what he would rather not? I honestly don't believe we do. Clearly a growing portion of the Left doesn't, either. And disappointment seems to be growing on all sides.

Can we be confident that whatever happens with such a plan it will ultimately carry the name and stamp of said individual? I'd wager we could if it were successful. I have my doubts  if it doesn't quite work out for the good, as many fear. Is that leadership, or something else? 

For better or worse, our best and most notable presidents tend to be leaders. They tend to be out front, not simply for the cameras, but on the difficult questions and issues of the day. One can fault former President Bush all they want, some criticism is fair, but one could never question where, ultimately, the buck stopped. We all knew it stopped with him. With Obama, it sometimes seems as if we're chasing him down for a bad loan.

Former President Bush didn't leave things that he considered extremely important to others, as he seemed to appreciate it just wasn't the way to get things done. That's a lesson only experience can teach. And most honest critics had to concede Obama didn't have much of that back during the campaign.

Increasingly, it's getting hard to determine just what Obama has at all, except Obama. That is, whatever image of the day he and his people are endeavoring to portray. And as is the case with just about any man, when they only have themselves, they end up having little of anything at all to offer. Don't you think?

I do. Or, at least I'm starting to seriously wonder if it that's the case. It's as if someone stripped the emperor's new clothes to find, it wasn't the clothes, but the emperor who wasn't there.

I hear he plays a decent game of golf, is better at hoops, watches movies and he bowls. At the rate we're going, his may be the first Presidential Library more suited for a gymnasium, than some place where one might expect to find some books. He evidently won't even need shelf space for those alleged college transcripts and writings we've never seen.

Imagine that. Hopefully they'll consider making it interactive so it'll be somewhat enjoyable for the kids. Just no talking life-size figures, please. For all we've seen of him in relatively insignificant and mostly self-centered moments, when he's done, the people might not need, or even want to see much more of him given his present course - other than some fine 18 holes in Hawaii, I mean.

Comments

[WAHOO WILLIE]

I wish more and more that I hadn't voted against Hilda in the primary. One of these attacks is going to get through and be successful. Hilda would answer the phone at 3 am....not be playing golf. Gotta appreciate the irony though, if ANY repugnican had been as distant as often as Obie has...entire cities would be aflame. But his demonrat allies agree that America deserves to have citizens murdered by the hundreds/thousands so anything Obie can do to help is fine with them. Not much for wishing my life away, but damn will 2010 ever get here so we can slow this cat down? He'll get two terms, try for a third, so we have to take congress and the states back asap.

[Sara]

Is there someone, somewhere with whom we all believe the buck really stops?

Apparently the buck still stops with George W. Bush, even the Christmas terror act, according to Gibbs.

Until Obama grows up, he is never going to take any responsibility. The incompetence is more terrifying than the terrorists. He reminds me of a whiny spoiled brat know everything 15 year old. Going to the gym and then the golf course when the country, during one of the heaviest travel weeks of the year, is so frightened, and he says nary a word, is a prime indication that he is too immature and incompetent for the job. One of the jobs of a President is to calm the country during a time of high stress, not go into hiding.

[smitty]

Sorry Dan. All I could do was link you, not give you a POTUS worth two hoots.

[smitty]

Oh, I guess you don't do HTML comments. Here is the link:
http://rsmccain.blogspot.com/2009/12/good-jennifer-rubin-analysis.html

[Neo]

The only saving grace of Obama is that while he often acts like a Chicago "Don," he at least doesn't walk about in bed-clothes mumbling to himself

[Steve]

Kind of reminds me of Bush when Katrina hit.

[SpeakEasy]

Steve, except that states are supposed to deal with their own emergencies first BY LAW you idiot (it maintains state sovereignty) . And the Louisiana National Guard, who responded belatedly but eventually, belongs to and takes its orders from the state governor. But hey, why not continually blame everything on Bush? Obama certainly does and it means never having to ever actually do anything. Katrina was a Democratic disaster from start to finish- mayor to governor- and even after all the money spent there, it is still a mess. Is that Bush's fault too?

[Moe]

Steve's typing from his state funded computer accessing the internet via the wifi terminal at his unemployment center.

[jaime]

What was Bush's response after Richard Reid failed to blow up a plane with his shoes bomb?

*crickets*

[andrew babic]

where's waldo?

[x11b1p]

Does America Have A President Right Now?

NO -we have a social worker!

[Mal]

He isn't even a good social worker. He's a crummy social worker that has had a great resume made up for himself.
I am heartily sorry to see your wonderful country come to this.

[Steve]

Didn't you hear?

THE SYSTEM WORKED!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r97fCN0gOHQ

[Snooper]

No. We have an undocumented ASSAHT sitting as the New Rezident of the Marxist House. He is a Jihadi Sympathizer and thinks we all need to get along.

[Tim]

The system DID work!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FixBaPxUFs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KbwiMJ74Bw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naZ7V_NshaI

Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab is not a returning Iraqi war vet!

So, the system did work because it prevented returning Iraqi war vets from committing this type of "Man Made Disaster"

Mahalo!

Do not EVER question The One again.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Photostream-Business-and-Pleasure-in-August/

(no, not a spoof link. The actual government funded White House website still has this "Messiah" photo on it).

[Joe]

Perhaps Tiger Woods is banging Michelle Obama now.

Perhaps it's time GOTUS got on LOTUS and type, type send.
(That's Governor and Laptop BTW).

[Greyledge Gal]

As I recall, what ruined Jimmy Carter more than anything with the public is that he went into hiding. We called it "Jimmy in the Rose Garden". It was the sense that he had just given up and the whole Presidency thing was too difficult for him. The rest of the country was going belly up, sitting in gasoline rationing lines, while watching Ted Koppel nightly to find out what had happened on Day 155, 156, (would it ever end) of the Iran Hostage Crisis, and tying yellow ribbons on trees across the US.

Meanwhile, back in 1984 - I mean 2009 - oops, Barack Obama is inconvenienced on his Hawaiian vacation . . .

[crosspatch]

Sure, we have a President. And he does exactly what China tells him to.

[SacTownMan]

He simply has no moral compass!

Born to an unmarried mother and raised by his "bitter, clingy" grandma!! Look at the men in his life, a communist POS father and others that were communist. socialist or even violent radicals!

He is incapable of dealing with anything that requires some kind of rational thinking.

He has never run a business, paid a payroll or served in the military. Hell he's never held a job longer than a couple of years running.

The Move-On, Soros, Pravda media crafted image has been very effective in pulling the ultimate con job on the American people.

Hope and Change turned into a "go screw yourself, I won" overnight! That great uniter Xerxes!!

"the One" simply doesn't "Get It"!!

He thinks another TOTUS speech sure to include "me" or "I" at least a hundred times will make everything better.

He loves to compare himself to FDR. The only problem is that FDR inspired confidence in the American people in a time of crisis. Just like FDR he is using his power to push a progressive driven agenda. This Bozzo is empty of any true compassion for anyone but himself and is nothing more than an empty suit.

We need true statesmen like George Washington or Thomas Jefferson not this bastard POTUS!!

[Anita]

Re: Steve
Kind of reminds me of Bush when Katrina hit.

BTW, Katrina hit = + Bobby Jindal. You could call it a Bush failure, ala MSM.

[PA]

Solid B+

[Daniel in Brookline]

I think the "buck stops here" Bush vs. Obama comparison is valid, but I suspect many would disagree with you. Remember, in 2001 - 2008, we had no shortage of people certain that Dick Cheney / Karl Rove / somebody-or-other was really running everything behind the scenes.

People who thought so at the time can be pretty sure, after the fact, that George W. Bush was indeed in command and in control. (Had he been just a figurehead, then what, short of a conspiracy theory worthy of Mission Impossible, would keep GWB from speaking out about it now? Come to think of it, many of the "GWB is a figurehead" stories WERE conspiracy theories worthy of Mission Impossible.)

respectfully,
Daniel in Brookline