The current state of the nation is leading many pundits and voters alike to question whether Barack Obama and the Democratic Party can motivate equal numbers of his 2008 supporters. Despite recent advances towards a more populist theme, Obama disenchantees can still be amply counted amongst the legions of Occupy supporters, OFA '08 alums and progressive pundits and bloggers. One of those disenchanted pundits is offering some advice in a new Time Magazine piece hitting the stands (With Hilary Clinton on the cover).
Adam Sorenson at Time previewed it this way
The Matthews piece, adapted from his forthcoming book on JFK, is one part epitaph for New Frontier liberalism, one part nostalgia for the Kennedy ’60s, and one part critique of a President whose leadership Matthews thinks failed to deliver on the promise of the candidate in 2008. The man who once famously said he “felt a thrill going up my leg” after watching Obama speak, is now thoroughly disenchanted:
"The American people who elected Barack Hussein Obama are on the verge of feeling discarded. Too many feel they were used for that purpose: to give him the job and then fade back into the obscurity from which they cheered him and saw him as their deliverance. It’s something he has to fix."
I've put a poll below to gauge agreement with Chris Matthews: Discarded or not?
The full Matthew's Time piece can be found here, although subscription is required. I've pulled the theme and nuggets to give you a taste under the squiggly orange thing.
Here are five things Jack Kennedy could teach Barack Obama:
1. You've Got to Ask
It is felt most of all by those who voted for him with such enthusiasm, cried on election night, got swept out onto the Washington Mall for his Inaugural. Where today are the throngs of people who voted for him? Too many of them are back home watching, back where they were when they first heard of this skinny young guy who reminded them of Kennedy.
...There are certain basics to becoming a leader. The first is asking people to follow you. Kennedy asked. Obama used people to get him elected. There's a difference, and the difference hurts. As a friend of mine who served with me in the Peace Corps in the late '60s put it, "People don't mind being used. They mind being discarded."
... It's something he has to fix. He needs to start asking.
Sound advice.
Moving on, Matthew' sense is that Obama does not have the full throated support of many popular Dems, or if he does, is not utilizing them to do what they do best...sell the President.
2. Create a Political Band of Brothers and Sisters
... the reason he doesn't have them, I suspect, is brutal: he hasn't spent enough time with them; he hasn't made them feel as though he needs an army. He's lonely because he's wanted to be alone. He doesn't like the backslapping. He doesn't like hanging around with other politicians. Guess what? They've noticed.
There's still time for Obama to build an Obama party between now and next fall's general election, but not much. He should forge ties with the strong Democrats out there in Ohio like Sherrod Brown and Marcy Kaptur... Bernie Sanders, Barney Frank, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Chuck Schumer know how to use television. He needs to make them his teammates and, yes, surrogates.
Number 3 is something every politician should strive to do in lieu of pointing fingers...
3. Take Responsibility
What's wrong with Obama's admitting that the stimulus bill he won from Congress in 2009 didn't do what he said it would? Give the reasons, but include the nature of the miscalculation.... Nobody is going to believe the second Obama term is going to be better than the first unless Obama lets it be known that he's learned from his mistakes.
In part 4 Matthews suggests that Obama's Change theme evolve to pitch America's can-do attitude, which I agree is under stress these days. I'm not sure how and why Chris arrives at the conclusion that there is something to believe in regarding the housing industry..... perhaps if Obama would take responsibility for not prosecuting Wall Street fraud on a greater scale than the Justice Department's miniscule efforts thus far, and stop pushing a stupid AG settlement plan, perhaps I too could believe.
4. Believe!
Where Kennedy could point to the success of the U.S. space program, this President needs to push the turnaround in the U.S. auto industry. The housing industry. And yes, all his standard stuff about clean energy and the rest. But the what is less important than the how. He needs to spotlight the victories over Osama bin Laden and the others not as Obama victories but as proof of American can-do. He didn't do; America did.
This is the strongest piece of Matthew's piece, you need to pick up Time and read the whole thing. It touches on the race to space and the American Dream..
5. Show the Vision
What is missing now is a spirit of adventure, of common purpose, a positive feeling, even romance about the times for meeting the challenges in the world, a stirring national cadence, a sense of mission.
If the election of 2012 is about the past--who got us into this mess, who is to blame--then the verdict will be mixed. If it's about how bad things are, the verdict will be simple, negative and unfortunate for the incumbents. But if it's about the future? Right there is the prospect for Obama.
And yes, there it is, the most important, most vital reason for Obama to be more like Kennedy.
He promised he would.
