As a somewhat dull observer of our President, I find myself ever more convinced, despite my dullness, that he is not enjoying the job of presidenting. His facial appearance seems to be strained and at times angry. He appears annoyed that there are many people who do not accept his judgments and who persist in opposing his policies. He seems bothered, I know not why.
Perhaps it is because none of his initiatives have shown success, except in the direction of hiring left wingers to government and providing government support of his political supporters.
In the beginning, with Democrat control of both houses of Congress, he was able to obtain passage of several massive bills, that nobody was given a chance to read, that vastly increased bureaucracy and rules on business as well as costing trillions. Having lost control of the House of Representatives this source of pleasure has vanished.
His foreign affairs ventures have all been unusually unsuccessful. His wooing of Russia, Iran and Syria have brought only contempt from them and escalation of their trouble making. His Libyan venture not only annoyed congress by being done without consulting it, but was an instant quagmire, easily predictable because it was aimed at prolonging the insurrection and against ending it with victory for either side. His campaign promises to improve the civil liberties of terrorists, to close Gitmo and to end all wars disappeared (thankfully) upon taking office. Making the Afghanistan war his own hasn’t worked so well. His inaction in the face of unrest in Iran and now in Syria and Iranian meddling in Iraq make him seem like a wuss, perhaps even to himself.
The economy and employment situation have eaten into his support and since despite their names all of his initiatives have been destimulating to the economy and to employment, even his supporters are beginning to wonder whether all troubles can be blamed on his predecessor. Some question how threatening to smite employers with high taxes and worse will get them to hire more people. By the way, the Democrats controlled congress during the second term of his predecessor so they must share blame for what happened then.
Most of his interactions with foreign dignitaries (another of his presidential duties) have been painful at best.
At the beginning he seemed to enjoy addressing the people and he did so incessantly
There have been a number of occasions in which the President has made decisions on his own that have been high handed and poorly thought out. Can he be completely unaware of all of them? Perhaps his anger stems from his awareness that some fools disagree with his belief that he has never made a single mistake as President.
In general, in my mind he is coming to resemble Joe Bftzyk, the Al Capp character who walked around in a cloud that always surrounded him, and always, apparently, kept raining on him.
At the beginning he seemed to enjoy sports, at least hobnobbing with big time sports figures, playing basketball and golf, presiding over gala parties and taking vacations. These are worthwhile sources of pleasure and distraction, but do not require his being president for him to enjoy. He also seems to enjoy fundraising gatherings and making political speeches. The necessity of being nice to fat cats who he randomly turns on later and denounces in his speeches, suggests that he actually hates doing this and hates them.
What I cannot fathom is why he want a second term. Unless the Democrats regain control of the House, which seems quite unlikely, he will get nothing he wants passed in a second term. True nobody is suing him or calling for impeachment, but there are some scandals, particularly in the Justice Department, which may yet lead to that, particularly if the Republicans take control of both houses.
I wonder what would happen if one could assure the President that if he does not run, he can keep all the hard earned campaign funds that he has raised and would not have to spend. If this can be done, his optimal path would be to raise as much money as possible up until the time comes to spend it, and then decide to bow out, on the basis of some hitherto unknown health problem (like that of the perpetrator of the Lockerbie disaster.) He could then spend all his time in playing golf or whatever, and taking vacations, and even pontificating a la James Carter, to an admiring national press.
I first thought that the Republicans would gain from this, being able to have some other Democrat as presidential candidate in 2012. In fact most prominent Democrat politicians are insults to the human race, and would surely lose. But if the Democrats could convince either Chris Christie or the Republican Senator from Massachusetts to run as Democrats, they could win in a walk, so maybe the Dems could turn this into a win.
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