Ron Fournier’s Paragraph about President Obama’s Failed Leadership Puts the Commander in Chief into Early Historical Perspective

© 2014 Peter Free

 

10 June 2014

 

 

I appear not to be the only one who has run out of patience with our remote and frequently incompetent President

 

Even Democrats are losing their cool with him.  Political columnist Ron Fournier wrote:

 

 

In the 18 months since I began writing columns focused on the presidency, virtually every post critical of Obama has originated from conversations with Democrats.

 

Members of Congress, consultants, pollsters, lobbyists, and executives at think tanks, these Democrats are my Obama-whispers.

 

They respect and admire Obama but believe that his presidency has been damaged by his [:]

 

shortcomings as a leader;

 

his inattention to details of governing;

 

his disengagement from the political process and from the public;

 

his unwillingness to learn on the job;

 

and

 

his failure to surround himself with top-shelf advisers who are willing to challenge their boss as well as their own preconceived notions.

 

© 2014 Ron Fournier, 'I've Had Enough': When Democrats Quit on Obama, National Journal (09 June 2014) (reformatted)

 

That is a good list of what even a mid-rank leader should not be.  Much less a Commander in Chief.

 

 

The moral? — When detractors can legitimately describe one as the obverse of what it takes to lead, one’s place in History will not be covered with respected significance

 

Effective leadership, especially as American President, requires the willingness to competently:

 

 

engage with those being led

 

grapple  with governing institutions

 

project one’s motivating will

 

in support of an at least marginally coherent thrust toward the envisioned future

 

while simultaneously —

 

paying close attention to the most critically important details of what is going on

 

learning from mistakes and successes every day

 

and

 

allowing oneself to be aided by

 

the hiring, tutoring and listening to advisors who see and forcefully word what one most does not want to hear.

 

President Obama does none of these things capably.

 

Perhaps his incompetence was the price he had to pay to get an often bigoted American public to make him president.

 

His criticism-sensitive personality traits may have been necessary accommodations to the insidious prejudice that African-Americans all face.  However, these qualities handicap him and the nation now — at the peak of his accomplishment in attaining America’s top spot.

 

Life is full of often painful ironies.