The Faux Golden Boy
I’ve watched President Obama through the campaign and during his first nine months in office. I’ve read and watched the mostly adoring press coverage. I’ve also read and heard the alarmist conservative plaints to the effect that Obama is a not-so-secret socialist/communist/Muslim whose main goal is to destroy America as it is, or once was.
I’ve also read Obama’s first book, Dreams from My Father, and I’m halfway through his second, The Audacity of Hope. (I’m beginning to wonder how many autobiographies one man can write.)
I’m arriving at a picture of Barack Obama — both as a man and as a politician — that differs significantly from the worshipful images of a sainted savior painted by liberals and the imaginary Manchurian Candidate that dominates the nightmares of conservatives.
It seems that Obama fits neither of those feverish descriptions. Rather, he’s more of a faux golden boy, the kind of modern man — more often than woman — who is mostly image without accomplishment. Because of, not despite, his mixed-race heritage, upbringing in exotic settings, and loss of a father he never knew, he emerged as one of those very bright young men who seemed to always succeed without ever doing much. Everything he touched somehow turned to gold just because he was himself. He is to the world of politics as Paris Hilton is to the world of entertainment — aura abetted by charisma, free of substance.
He ducks and weaves his way around obstacles, never confronting challenges head-on, never engaging in direct combat that can wound or kill. He’s the brilliant golden boy, after all, and everything can be forgiven. He’s not the kind of man who could fight his way through the corporate world to become a CEO, and he wouldn’t make it far in the military. But he’s a perfect politician, a force unto himself, who managed to become President of the United States without ever having done much that was hard or dangerous.
And how’s that working out so far? Campaign promises unfulfilled, hard decisions ducked, a solid majority in Congress that accomplishes little because of a lack of firm presidential leadership. After the health care reform, cap-and-trade, and stimulus debacles, the President is now dithering his way through a decision on the war in Afghanistan. Or, perhaps he’s trying to avoid making a decision. The golden boy has met an obstacle he can’t talk his way around; he has to make a decision that’s among the hardest imaginable. If he goes one way, we’re almost inevitably headed into another Vietnam-like scenario; if he goes the other way, it will be him who lost Southwest Asia. The worst decision, and the one he may make, is right down the middle — and that’s a guarantee of failure.
I don’t want Obama to be another failed president. However, I fear that’s where he’s headed because a faux golden boy can’t last long in a job that requires a real iron man (or woman). When we look back on the Obama presidency some years from now, it may be that the recent Saturday Night Live skit on Obama’s failures was the gasping canary in the coal mine.
(This article was also published at Opinion Forum.)
Comments? Leave your intelligent feedback down below or consider following CollegeTimes on Facebook or Twitter to stay updated or to get in touch!
Q. Who takes the polls seriously?
A. Umm, politicians, etc?
———————————
Q. Are results or lack thereof truly determined by polls?
A. To a degree, yes.
———————————
I’m quite pleased with Obama’s performance thus far and look forward to more stunning results over the balance of his first term.
Stunning results? You jest, surely
Who takes the polls seriously? Are results or lack thereof truly determined by polls? In my humble opinion, Obama is aligned with power, not force. The majority of us are accustomed to force so, it’s a rather delicate matter to shift and “see” the power side of things. One must actually be familiar with the difference between the two modalities. I’m quite pleased with Obama’s performance thus far and look forward to more stunning results over the balance of his first term.
Tony, you can take the article any way you wish. But that fact is, I’m not against Obama. I didn’t vote for him because I didn’t think he was sufficiently experienced, and I didn’t hear enough substance behind all the talk about “hope” and “change.” But now that he’s President, I support him and hope he’s successful, even though I don’t necessarily approve of all his policy preferences.
You say that Obama has brought “a sense of hope” to the U.S. Maybe in the beginning, but his plummeting poll numbers indicate that people may be re-thinking the whole thing.
It took the Bush administration two terms to really mess things up, so I’m willing to give our current president some more time before I make any comment.
Tony, you would be better off talking to a brick wall, this site appears to be mainly against obama. Nothing he can say or do is likely to change that =)
Wow, you should try basing your opinion on substance. Obama wasn’t some guy they picked off the street. He’s had a long career before becoming president, and he’s still got 3 years until the next election. Try checking here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama#Presidency
to see some of the things he’s accomplished so far as president.
Besides that, he’s improved the global perception of the USA by about a million times over the last president. That’s quite an accomplishment in and of itself.
Finally, there is a sense of hope which Obama has brought to the USA. There is a real belief that wars might END, and that peoples’ lives will improve under his administration. Could we ever have hoped for better health care, better consumer protection, better environmental policy, and less military action/spending during the 8 years prior to Obama becoming president?
If you really think he’s “Faux”, i think you need to explain how that relates to the above laundry list I’ve given you (including the wiki link).