It’s hard to remember now, but only a month ago most political pundits were predicting that Barack Obama was going to win the presidential election in a cakewalk.
On the eve of the first debate in early October, Democrats were euphoric, Republicans were demoralized and depressed, and the political world was dismissing Romney as an amateur who was out of his league.
But then, as we all know, the campaign took a dramatic U-turn. Romney kayoed Obama in that first debate, and the same carping critics who had declared Romney’s candidacy dead in the water anointed the Republican challenger as the momentum candidate.
Suddenly, it was Barack Obama who looked like the amateur.
As president, Obama has shown himself to be inept in the arts of management and governance. He has failed to learn from his mistakes and therefore repeats policies, both at home and abroad, that don’t work. He invariably blames his problems on those he disagrees with and is so thin-skinned that he constantly complains about what people say and write about him. He is a strange kind of politician who derives no joy from the cut and thrust of politics, but who clings to the narcissistic life of the presidency.
The qualities that define him — his arrogance, his sense of superiority, and his air of haughtiness — have been on full display as Obama has sought a second term. In the debates and during the final weeks of the campaign, Obama has been prickly and defensive. His cheap shots at Romney (for instance, he mocked Romney for using the phrase “binders full of women”) and his use of the derisive word “Romnesia” have made Obama appear unpresidential, small and unserious.
Obama has always had scorn for anyone who disagrees with him. That was particularly obvious in the first debate.
“In debates, I watch body language more than content,” Stuart Spencer, the famous political consultant who ran Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaigns, told me. “That’s where it’s at in debates. And Obama came across as arrogant and preachy. He has a personality that hates to be questioned. He has to be right and have answers all the time. Even in his facial expressions, he was looking at Romney as ‘you fool.’ That was not a winning debate strategy.”
By all accounts, Obama doesn’t find joy in being president. Like Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter, he is an introvert who prefers his own company to that of others.
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Klein wrote a bestseller called
The Amateur about Obama's presidency. He appears to have a handle on Obama's problem of doing what is required in his job. Obama does appear to be perfectly suited for the role of former President.
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