An Excellent Piece of Analytical Journalism — Scott Wilson’s Essay about “Obama, the Loner President”

© 2011 Peter Free

 

08 October 2011

 

 

No sensationalized nonsense in Mr. Wilson’s essay, just a thoughtful review of how character impacts politics in the President’s case

 

The Washington Post’s Scott Wilson used his two-year coverage of President Obama to produce a thoughtful article about how the President’s aloof character has produced the political situation he’s in:

 

Beyond the economy, the wars and the polls, President Obama has a problem: people.

 

Obama is, in short, a political loner who prefers policy over the people who make politics in this country work.

 

“He likes politics,” said a Washington veteran who supports Obama, “but like a campaign manager likes politics, not a candidate.” The former draws energy from science and strategy, the latter from contact with people.

 

Which raises an odd question: Is it possible to be America’s most popular politician and not be very good at American politics?

 

© 2011 Scott Wilson, Obama, the loner president, Washington Post (07 October 2011) (paragraph split)

 

 

Wilson presents a useful contrast with former President Clinton’s policy-smarts plus glad-handing interpersonal style

 

I prefer Bill Clinton’s superior intellectual grasp and his obviously displayed personal warmth to President Obama’s unwarranted intellectual arrogance and his virtually complete lack of displayed personal warmth.

 

Wilson draws the same conclusion (but more diplomatically than I just put it).

 

 

The key question — how can someone be a good leader if he has no idea where the country wants to go?

 

Policy-pushing makes sense, only if people can be persuaded to support its goals and the routes to them.

 

An elected president will have difficulty moving people to support policy, when he shares little of their hearts.  Most of humanity is motivated by emotion, not intellect.

 

President Obama’s primary political problem is his lack of emotion-based insight.

 

He is good at a chess-player’s tactical manipulation, but not sustained big-picture “motivate the masses” leadership.  The latter requires a connected “core,” or its successful pretense.

 

If the President wins the next election, it will be because he was the lesser of evils.  Not because he inspired us to seek the true and practical greatness in ourselves.

 

Heart counts.