On the day of that awful rampage last November when Army psychiatrist Major Nidal Hasan gunned down 13 soldiers at Fort Hood in Texas, President Obama came out to the Rose Garden.
It was the president’s first remarks on the tragedy and he recited from his notes without emotion or outrage, offering what he called "an update" on the matter.
I criticized Obama in my blog for behaving like a white house staffer sent out to read a prepared statement. But I wasn’t just offended by the guy’s inability to connect with the public (including me). I was beginning to conclude that we had elected a president with a serious political deficiency.
Now the president’s incapacity to react – in real time – to events around him has reached critical mass with the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
And I don’t think this is just a matter of theatrics or posturing.
There’s the real possibility that the public perception of the administration’s handling of the disaster could worsen congressional democrat’s prospects in the 2010 midterm election. Unlike most of Obama’s policy battles, it wasn’t republican opponents forcing his hand. It was his own lack of political skill which brought on the perception of an inept president and administration.
Read Robert Kuttner’s piece about how this president repeatedly fails to use events to communicate to the public and advance his agenda. The author of A Presidency in Peril, Kuttner is a pragmatic progressive who believes Obama - and we - are just about out of time.
Eagerly waiting their turn is what Kuttner calls a "truly lunatic rightwing."
I’ve said before that Obama obviously has great assets but just doesn’t seem to have presidential instincts.
Did I hear someone say "Hillary in 2012?"