“Obama the Snob” writes former Bush Speechwriter, Michael Gerson in today’s Washington Post.
“What does he do now? writes Peter Baker in the New York Times Magazine suggesting Obama might have to change ‘ his approach.’
The Tea Party are piling on with loads of anonymous election money to echo Sarah Palin’s mocking queston -”How’s that hopey-changey thing working out for ya?” Even Obama’s answer is-It’s not!
The extraordinary Obama profile by Peter Baker in the New York Times presents us with a character more aggrieved and frustrated than a strong national leader vigorously pursuing his reform agenda. “They talk about me like a dog,” he pleads, inviting the crowd to feel his pain, and not the other way round. It sounds awfully close to whining. What happened to his “Yes we can.”
The Fairy Tale that got Obama elected ended January 20th 2009. The media gave the celebrity a longer honeymoon than most presidents get, but the shine has gone off “Brand “Obama,” and it was inevitable.
In October 2008, with the election in free fall from the economic crash, storywise published The Presidential Plot, a book that claimed it could read the future, because stories work as predictably as train lines. The Presidential Plot that the book explains almost demands that the Messianic leader gets crucified in the end-or in the mid terms, and the real challenge is-does he rise again? Otherwise, there is no story to tell. The character is a function of the plot.
Lets take a peek back at the final chapter of The Presidential Plot-as it moves the story from inauguration day. Remember, this was even before Obama won the job.
…He will have to deal with a fractious Congress no matter what party wins the majority. He will meet regularly with the ego-maniacal media ever eager to become the story makers, not the story tellers. He will have a Supreme Court aging and split as if there was a San Andreas Fault line hidden at the heart of the Constitution. For a hundred days, at least, the honeymoon will cushion the new President from the dull thud of reality but then, it all changes.
All those stories, that Washington is broken, that politics is too rancorous and partisan, that legislation is nothing but compromise and pork and gridlock; these were all the stories of the Presidential Plot that helped get him elected because he promised to change all of that.
But in 2009 and 2010, our hero will come crashing down to earth, because great heroes are made for great tragedies. And it is part of the President’s hidden contract with the story, the part it demands he play. All those election clichés will have been forgotten long enough ago for them to reappear as new. Washington is broken, but now, our hero broke it, or was broken by it, and once again, our leaders have failed the country. Another election cycle will loom, and it will be time to dust off the “How to get re-elected” story kit. It will be time for campaign managers to revive the story cycle, rise and fall, rise and fall, and the re-enchantment of America starts all over again…(Page 286, The Presidential Plot)
Someone with narrative intelligence rather than a political brain needs to take the President aside, as they should have done on January 21st 2008, to both reassure him and tell him straight- its downhill from here, that the expectations he helped create were always unreal even for an Emperor, and therefore dangerous. He should totally eschew the cult of celebrity, and play the statesman. Even then, he should expect his ratings to fall to even below 30% because the ” Fall From Grace” will be almost as big as the “Rise to Power” story. One is the flip side of the other. The media love to destroy what they feel they created. Its not malice, its ratings. If you play that game to win, you get played to lose.
But here is where the story gets interesting. Finally, we will get to see the real Obama. Does he cave in and take it all too personally, start talking about malaise and about his bitter disappointments? Or does he seize the opportunity and reveal a character of deeper and more enduring courage.
The story isn’t over by a long shot, but it has come to its pivot point. The President has time to realize that people are willing to give him two more years- and that the defeat his party is expecting on November 2nd is his call to arms, not to become timid and defensive. We remember the old saying, its not how big the dog is in the fight, but how big the fight is in the dog.
Obama knows the story he needs to be in come November 2012 if he wants to stay in the job. And its not the character he is presenting now. Have some courage, Mr. President. The nation voted for change and change is what they crave-if you can’t change us forward, then people will naturally want to change back. But as the poet Rilke said so eloquently, “Staying still is nowhere.”