Yesterday, Obama experienced what is being described as a gaffe or kerfuffle. He asked to give a speech on jobs to Congress on the same night as the latest Saturday Night Live session... I mean debate.
It did not go well. John Boehner slapped his request down. Obama picked himself up, dusted himself off and pretty much said, Yessir, we'll do it the next day.
This was an amazingly sloppy, incompetent failure of leadership that has further demeaned, embarrassed and diminished the stature of the Obama presidency. Whoever allowed it to happen should be fired. Whoever failed to tell Obama that the idea was dangerous and foolish should be fired. But they won't be. They (the failures in the White House) think they are winning the respect and appreciation of moderates.
They don't get it that moderates are moderate on issues, but that all voters want to see strength and strong leadership and competence. The American people have seen nothing but failure, incompetence and lack of strong leadership from the White House.
weakness not failure to be progressive
The pundits say progressives are disgusted with Obama for his failure to be progressive. I never expected him to function as a progressive, to pursue progressive issues or values.
But I did expect him to keep his promises.
I did expect him to be better than, not be worse than Bush.
I did expect him to be a strong leader. I did expect him to have some level of competence as a negotiator. He is an abject failure at both. He is a a first down punter-- a failure at negotiation.
It is tempting to blame Obama's chronic, consistent pattern of leadership failures on some advisor. But I think we must face the reality that Barack Obama is a wimp, a smart guy, even a nice guy, who just doesn't have the spine to be as tough as the people of the United States and the rest of the world need.
This gaffe should lead to the firing of whoever orchestrated it for Obama, and whoever failed to nix it and that includes the withdrawal of Barack Obama as a candidate for the 2012 presidency.
And the leaders of the Democratic party have to wake up to the reality that their leader is not a leader, that he is being seen more and more every day as a wimp who can be pushed around.
We need a president who can be tough-- on crime, on polluters, on corrupt banksters, on trans-nationa corporations, even on party members who go rogue.
I think it's time for a woman president. Knee jerk reactors say there's no candidate in sight. I say that once Obama steps down, a plethora of candidates will come out of the woodwork-- good ones.
The knee jerk Obama apologists say that if Obama doesn't run, the Dems will lose. I don't believe that unsupported claim. I think it's a lie. When LBJ stepped down, Robert Kennedy would have won if he had not been assassinated.
Obama had his chance. He is not a leader. Registered Democrats, independents and the people of America deserve better. He should step down or face primary challengers, preferably step down.
America needs a strong woman president who will really lead. It is time.
Rob Kall is executive editor, publisher and site architect of OpEdNews.com, Host of the Rob Kall Bottom Up Radio Show (WNJC 1360 AM), President of Futurehealth, Inc, inventor . He is also published regularly on the Huffingtonpost.com
With his experience as architect and founder of a technorati top 100 blog, he is also a new media / social media consultant and trainer for corporations, non-profits, entrepreneurs and authors.
Rob is a frequent Speaker on the bottom up revolution, politics, The art, science and power of story, heroes and the hero's journey, Positive Psychology, Stress, Biofeedback and a wide range of subjects. He is a campaign consultant specializing in tapping the power of stories for issue positioning, stump speeches and debates, and optimizing tapping the power of new media. He recently retired as organizer of several conferences, including StoryCon, the Summit Meeting on the Art, Science and Application of Story and The Winter Brain Meeting on neurofeedback, biofeedback, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology. See more of his articles here and, older ones, here.
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Recent press coverage in the Wall Street Journal:
Party's Left Pushes for a Seat at the Table
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