Masopher's Mind

President Obama had his state of the union speech this week. Republicans sneered at it Democrats applauded it. With minor losses in the house, Democrats are feeling a sense of vulnerability and talk of concessions has broken out in the ranks. But Obama, great politician that he is, puts a great face on the situation. The worst recession, the most complex PAIR of wars, civil right, freedom, American principles on the back foot: Obama’s task is the most significant and yet could appear the least important. Americans are walking on thin air with the ground 1000 feet below like Elmer Fudd in the old “Looney Toons” cartoons. Obama’s task is to fill the void that Americans are traversing before they realize just how oblivious they are to the danger and gravity takes it’s toll. And this is why even if Obama is successful no one will realize it. Keeping the shakey country together while it’s citizens blithely go about their business could take everything out of Obama’s presidency. Success mean little but failiure could mean everything.
1 year into his presidency and Obama seems to have reached the highmark of his popularity. His healthcare bill is sputtering against heavy senatorial and lobbyist pressure, his hand held out to Iran has been slapped away and he is ramping up the Afghan war while at the same time capitulating to the Taliban. China has ignored pleas for the environment and the financial sector has ignored pleas for reform. It looks dire. There is not one desperate issue, there are several, none of which the rest of the democrats seem to be able to help with. Obamas problems is lack of leadership not lack of his own; as a leader he is a giant among them but for precisely that. Obama is the Atlas upon which the Americans and citizens of the world sit, only by his fall can his Herculean effort be recognized.
But we shall see, he has not delivered a first round knockout to his many opponents but he is a thinker, a strategist and there are still at least three rounds of good old fashion rope-a-dope left for this prizefighter.