A Bit of Pessimism — Regarding a Man Who Has Never Displayed Much Grit for a Principled and Uphill Fight — President Obama’s Penchant for Hiding behind Speeches, this Time on the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shootings

© 2012 Peter Free

 

18 December 2012

 

President Obama is a master at assessing the national mood and throwing it fragments of a token bone

 

Usually just enough to get by.  But not enough to change America’s characteristic subjugation to entrenched interests.

 

Pertinent here, astute columnist Dana Milbank yesterday wrote:

 

President Obama says we will change our approach to gun violence — some other day.

 

Will Obama push for more gun-control laws?

 

“I would simply point you to what the president said last night about moving forward in coming weeks,” the spokesman said.

 

Will he join the effort to reinstate the assault-weapons ban?

 

“You’ll hear from him, I think, as he said last night, in the coming weeks, to speak more specifically about what he thinks we can do.”

 

There’s only one problem with the “coming weeks” approach to gun control: The weeks almost never come.

 

© 2012 Dana Milbank, Slow-walking the gun issue, Washington Post (17 December 2012)

 

 

A politically talented, but not especially admirable leader

 

You will notice that Remarks by the President at Sandy Hook Interfaith Prayer Vigil does not even refer to guns, firearms, or mental illness.

 

It is as if 26 innocents mysteriously died at the school in the arms of “tragedy,” but no more.

 

The President’s Prayer Vigil speech can be seen as either (i) a subdued call to unspecified action or (ii) a conveniently camouflaged stalling tactic:

 

In the coming weeks, I will use whatever power this office holds to engage my fellow citizens -- from law enforcement to mental health professionals to parents and educators -- in an effort aimed at preventing more tragedies like this.

 

Because what choice do we have?  We can’t accept events like this as routine.

 

Are we really prepared to say that we’re powerless in the face of such carnage, that the politics are too hard?  Are we prepared to say that such violence visited on our children year after year after year is somehow the price of our freedom?

 

© 2012 Barack Obama, Remarks by the President at Sandy Hook Interfaith Prayer Vigil, The White House (16 December 2012) (paragraph split)

 

 

Consider these two points

 

The President admitted that Sandy Hook is the fourth (gun related) tragedy to receive his Presidential condolences.

 

Yet, his Administration has no at hand proposal for better managing the tide of firearms related violence.  One would think that a concerned and capable leader would have drawn up such a plan — after the first, second, or third instance.

 

Now, after the fourth (by his count) condolence delivery, President Obama plans “to engage to engage my fellow citizens -- from law enforcement to mental health professionals to parents and educators -- in an effort aimed at preventing more tragedies like this.”

 

Notice that the President does not even appear to know “whatever power” his own “office holds.”

 

That’s a laughable assessment.  President Obama has consistently and almost exclusively relied on words during his White House stay.  Yet now, he cannot seem to grasp that verbalized leadership from the Oval Office might actually ignite a fire that burns its way to actually doing something to subdue our love affair with killing people.

 

The President is indulging the same stalling tactic that he used in regard to the alleged deficit crisis.  Where he delayed having to do anything by appointing the Simpson-Bowles team to study the budget problem.

 

Even after the Simpson-Bowles’ National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform came forward with a workable (but unpopular plan) in December 2010, the President studiously ignored it.

 

Two years later, we still have not done anything of substance about the budget.

 

 

The moral? — Sandy Hook is likely to fade away, without significant leadership from President Obama

 

The President is a talented politician, insofar as far as politics (as distinct from leadership) is defined as the ability to find and hold power.  But he is also an unmotivated and usually courage-lacking leader, insofar as leadership is defined as the ability to get difficult and necessary things done.

 

The President is good at concealing and papering things over.  But bad at taking determined action to fix real problems.

 

An accomplished and often appealing skater. But generally not more.