Obama's Achille's Heel

President Obama’s credibility began to slip with people who elected him around the end of May. Just a few short days after his 100th day in office and glowing approval began to dim, a combination of the ranks of the conservative right and blue dog democrats. The young charismatic, educated, honey colored African-American, movingly articulate man has ran afoul of public sentiment because of his powerful adherence to and apparent need to be conciliatory and fair to his opponents. Barack ObamaBarack Obama will fade as the nation’s first African American president and will be remembered solely for his lame-duck presidency mired in the art of compromise. To date, from a public perspective, not one issue that has crossed President Obama’s desk since his inauguration has met with a decisive stance to effect change. To be sure, this nation needs a leader who is intelligent and thoughtful, an individual who can provide the framework for success on multiple issues that face the nation, but Obama’s adept skill of compromise has also rendered him impotent as a leader.

Most people respect and understand that compromise is a positive personality trait and most would agree that the art of compromise is an excellent habit for all people to develop. It appears that Mr. Obama has acquired an abundance of the art over his lifetime and yet this time worn positive attribute will be the quintessential downfall of our president. Mr. Obama was elected to office because the electorate overwhelmingly, desperately, desired change in the government and how it had functioned over the previous eight years. To date, and let it be acknowledged that true change takes time, but the Obama administration has intertwined the sins of the past administration into his so-called new, progressive administration. The sins of the previous administration are either being completely ignored or embraced. Obama’s dogged determination to deal with all situations and challenges by only using the art of compromise has public sentiment waning while questioning exactly why compromise is more important than taking a decisive stance on issues.

Franklin D. RooseveltFranklin D. Roosevelt acted decisively during the Great Depression and turned the economy and the nation back into a producing first world power. Roosevelt was not inhibited or impeded in his desire to address the problems that faced the American public. He regulated the industries that bankrupted the country and he provided jobs for a populace who was beaten and almost without hope. In contrast, Obama has chosen to negotiate and enrich the entities that plunged the country into economic chaos (yes, the previous administration pioneered this path) and by doing so the administration has also abandoned the millions of people who supported his bid for the highest office in the land. The government has provided a safety net for the institutions that gambled with our economic stability while the average consumer has been left to dangle in an uncertain current and future economic climate. Perhaps Obama’s well defined muscle for compromise has worked well to solve the many issues that have confronted him in his previous public and private life, but what Mr. Obama and his immediate advisors need to apprehend, post haste, is that this current posture of compromise first and always is weakening the ideals that got Mr. Obama elected. Obama’s posture of ‘compromise only’ has rendered him “unpresidential,” a person unable to lead by virtue of the fact that it appears that he can not or will not execute a reasoned or hard lined, inflexible stance on any issue.

Obama’s affinity for compromise has alerted the electorate to the fact that his much touted pre-election promise to usher in a universal healthcare program for all Americans will be compromised away even before it reaches the floor of congress for debate. Just as George W. BushGeorge W. Bush’s dogged inflexibility and his inability to listen to outside points of view rendered him ineffective so too will Obama’s unwavering attachment to compromise will ultimately result in his ultimate downfall, his very public and Achille’s heel.

These are difficult times. Our values as a nation were compromised by a specious attempt to launch a War on Terror by a pre-emptive attack against a country that had nothing to do with 9/11. The economy has tanked and people are losing their jobs, homes, savings and investments. The country can not survive with a lame duck president under any circumstances. We, the electorate, deserve the man we thought we voted into office to affect change and not this impotent imposter tied to compromise entirely at our expense.