Is He Really “That” Good?  Under the watch of the President who was going to stop the rise of the oceans, heal the planet, write better speeches than his speechwriters, who knew more about foreign policy than his foreign policy experts, who would bring us the most transparent administration ever, who would have nothing to do with lobbyists and crony capitalism, and who would instantly, with his inauguration, heal all the outstanding wounds between America and the Muslim world…we now have the current middle east crisis and a simultaneous meltdown of  the U.S. economy.  If Obama is correct in saying that his lack of successful policy implementation is the mess he inherited from Bush, does that mean that if Romney wins in November, he will be totally unaccountable for all he heirs?  Because one can make a strong case that his legacy would be far more flawed than the one waiting for Obama.

There has been a theme woven throughout the Obama presidency; a theme of arrogance.  We have all seen those movies where the character can move at super-speed and this is illustrated by them moving through the room while everyone else remains still.  I honestly believe that this is how our President perceives himself in his current position.  He truly believes that he is “so” good, that all he has to do is show up for work, listen politely, and grace others with his glorious prose on selected occasions.  He moves through the room oblivious of those around him and cognizant only of himself and his purposes; ridiculing others at will and with no consequence.  Once the Democrats passed their health care legislation and Obama signed it, he gave up on governing and has put our government on auto-pilot in order to seek re-election; to do otherwise would have required lowering himself to deal with less stellar individuals, such as Senators and Representatives and Voters and that, no doubt, is challenging work.

What we have seen in the failure of both our national economy and foreign policy isn’t so much a sin of commission, but rather a sin of omission.  As Condi Rice so aptly stated at the Republican convention, when leadership is not exerted, it creates a vacuum...and that vacuum will be filled.  History may record that Obama’s auto-pilot methods were successful; the verdict may not yet be complete.  It has been argued on occasion that government is best that governs the least.  However, it also the hard truth that our greatest regrets involves not the things we did, but the things we didn’t do.  Another hard truth is that the Presidency is hard work, it requires making hard choices, and it requires taking actions in clear and unequivocal terms.   Whatever verdict history may deliver on the merit of Obama’s policies; the verdict is clear on his leadership…MIA.