He's not interested in national security meetings nor doing what a President is expected to do.
Thereâs no doubt President Obamaâs liberal supporters are worried by his lackluster performance in the Denver debate. âEveryone is in shock,â one show-business liberal told the Hollywood reporter. âNo one can understand what happened.â The Obama faithful are offering the White House advice, talking points, pep talks â anything to improve the presidentâs performance when he next faces Mitt Romney at Hofstra University on October 16.
But for some liberal writers, the concern goes deeper. Perhaps Obamaâs somewhat withdrawn demeanor at the debate was an indication that he doesnât even want a second term as president.
On the morning after the debate, The Atlantic ran an analysis headlined, âSnippy Obama, Whose Heartâs Not In It.â Writer Garance Franke-Ruta suggested that Obama, as an unusually sensitive man, has been worn down by the presidencyâs demands of conducting war in Afghanistan and dealing with crises like the murder of a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans in Libya. âHis supporters keep wanting Obama to be who he was in 2008,â Franke-Ruta wrote. âBut thatâs not who he is anymore.â Obamaâs old enthusiasm for the job is simply gone.
Now, in the Daily Beast, liberal writer Michael Tomasky asks, âDoes Obama Even Want to Win the Election?â After poor Obama showings at the debate, the Democratic convention, and a high-profile â60 Minutesâ interview, Tomasky writes, âSomeone needs to ask the cut-to-the-chase question: is he enthusiastic about keeping this job, or he is just maybe tired of being president?â
Perhaps he is. If so, there were certainly signs long before Wednesday night in Denver. A look at the presidentâs career shows he has never stayed in a job four years without looking to move on to something better.
After a year or two as a community organizer, Obama became deeply frustrated by his inability to enact the kind of big changes in society that he wanted to see. He went to Harvard Law School to plug into the power structure that would help him make those changes in the future. Returning to Chicago three years later, he dabbled in the practice of law before winning a seat in the state Senate in 1996. But he became frustrated with the job almost immediately; according to a Washington Post profile, Obama began âchafing ⦠at the limitations of legislating in Springfield.â
The easily-bored state legislator almost immediately began planning a run for the U.S. House in 2000 â which turned out to be his only losing campaign. Shortly thereafter, he set his sights on the U.S. Senate, winning in 2004.
But within a year after arriving in Washington in early 2005, Obama was restless again. According to the election account Game Change, in 2006 Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid âsensed [Obama's] frustration and impatience, had heard rumblings that Obama was already angling to head back home and take a shot at the Illinois governorship.â
âI know that you donât like it, doing what youâre doing,â Reid told Obama, according to Game Change. Reid suggested Obama run for president instead. Soon Obama was doing just that.
Now Obama has been president for nearly four years. Aided by a huge Democratic majority from 2009 to 2011, he achieved some big things â massive stimulus, Obamacare, Dodd-Frank. He even won the Nobel Peace Prize, essentially for showing up. But he hasnât achieved, and wonât achieve in four more years, the âfundamental transformationâ of American society that he envisioned. And his entire career suggests that by now he should be angling for a bigger, better job. The problem is, there isnât such a position â and a second term in the same old job doesnât count. The chief benefit of winning re-election to a second term might simply be to avoid being labeled a loser, to avoid joining Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush as presidents who couldnât win a second time.
So if his liberal supporters sense signs of boredom and frustration in the president, they might be right.
Thereâs no doubt President Obamaâs liberal supporters are worried by his lackluster performance in the Denver debate. âEveryone is in shock,â one show-business liberal told the Hollywood reporter. âNo one can understand what happened.â The Obama faithful are offering the White House advice, talking points, pep talks â anything to improve the presidentâs performance when he next faces Mitt Romney at Hofstra University on October 16.
But for some liberal writers, the concern goes deeper. Perhaps Obamaâs somewhat withdrawn demeanor at the debate was an indication that he doesnât even want a second term as president.
On the morning after the debate, The Atlantic ran an analysis headlined, âSnippy Obama, Whose Heartâs Not In It.â Writer Garance Franke-Ruta suggested that Obama, as an unusually sensitive man, has been worn down by the presidencyâs demands of conducting war in Afghanistan and dealing with crises like the murder of a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans in Libya. âHis supporters keep wanting Obama to be who he was in 2008,â Franke-Ruta wrote. âBut thatâs not who he is anymore.â Obamaâs old enthusiasm for the job is simply gone.
Now, in the Daily Beast, liberal writer Michael Tomasky asks, âDoes Obama Even Want to Win the Election?â After poor Obama showings at the debate, the Democratic convention, and a high-profile â60 Minutesâ interview, Tomasky writes, âSomeone needs to ask the cut-to-the-chase question: is he enthusiastic about keeping this job, or he is just maybe tired of being president?â
Perhaps he is. If so, there were certainly signs long before Wednesday night in Denver. A look at the presidentâs career shows he has never stayed in a job four years without looking to move on to something better.
After a year or two as a community organizer, Obama became deeply frustrated by his inability to enact the kind of big changes in society that he wanted to see. He went to Harvard Law School to plug into the power structure that would help him make those changes in the future. Returning to Chicago three years later, he dabbled in the practice of law before winning a seat in the state Senate in 1996. But he became frustrated with the job almost immediately; according to a Washington Post profile, Obama began âchafing ⦠at the limitations of legislating in Springfield.â
The easily-bored state legislator almost immediately began planning a run for the U.S. House in 2000 â which turned out to be his only losing campaign. Shortly thereafter, he set his sights on the U.S. Senate, winning in 2004.
But within a year after arriving in Washington in early 2005, Obama was restless again. According to the election account Game Change, in 2006 Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid âsensed [Obama's] frustration and impatience, had heard rumblings that Obama was already angling to head back home and take a shot at the Illinois governorship.â
âI know that you donât like it, doing what youâre doing,â Reid told Obama, according to Game Change. Reid suggested Obama run for president instead. Soon Obama was doing just that.
Now Obama has been president for nearly four years. Aided by a huge Democratic majority from 2009 to 2011, he achieved some big things â massive stimulus, Obamacare, Dodd-Frank. He even won the Nobel Peace Prize, essentially for showing up. But he hasnât achieved, and wonât achieve in four more years, the âfundamental transformationâ of American society that he envisioned. And his entire career suggests that by now he should be angling for a bigger, better job. The problem is, there isnât such a position â and a second term in the same old job doesnât count. The chief benefit of winning re-election to a second term might simply be to avoid being labeled a loser, to avoid joining Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush as presidents who couldnât win a second time.
So if his liberal supporters sense signs of boredom and frustration in the president, they might be right.
last time I posted something, someone said a dude named macbeth said it first a couple hunerd years ago, wtf....
