Politics has a habit of throwing up aphorisms that aren’t actually true. ‘All politics is local.’ Apart from when it’s not. ‘A week is a long time in politics.’ For an individual politician maybe but it’s not really the case otherwise. I guess we could add, ‘Campaign in poetry, govern in prose,’ to the list. The Obama presidency thus far suggests that the inspirational class of politician needs to govern in poetry also.
President Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe, has a book coming out called the Audacity to Win. Arianna Huffington contrasts this with the ‘timidity of governing’ and in some respects she has a point.
Plouffe’s book reminds us of the core ethos that drove the Obama campaign:
Only a fool would suggest that Obama has not worked tirelessly for the middle-classes. He has. Getting the economy back on track including tax cuts for the many, confronting the scandal of US healthcare, and the beginnings of a programme of investment to benefit the middle classes are all part of this. However, it would be a very generous commentator indeed who did not see the record so far as mixed on the other counts.
Wall Street and its lobbyists still are playing a savvy game in Washington. Financial reform crawls through with no one really clear about how much reform it will entail. Industry, and the health insurance industry are fighting a pretty good rear-guard action against fundamental change on the environment and healthcare. Change? It’s in the balance.
If climate change legislation is passed with clear reduction commitments and meaningful cap and trade and healthcare legislation with a public option is passed, then we can breathe easily. That is change. Without this then things are slipping.
But to get there, it may well require President Obama to find his campaigning voice again. His opponents have found theirs. He has to re-discover his as when he did momentarily when addressing Congress on the passage of healthcare.
And beyond America’s shores, the most difficult decision of his presidency awaits. The last great progressive reformer, Lyndon B Johnson had his presidency scuppered by Vietnam. It is not melodramatic to suggest that President Obama faces just as serious a choice.
It is a choice that is about life and liberty not politics. The Afghanistan war is going disastrously. President Obama must choose between retrenchment and deeper engagement. A halfway house – and his inner pragmatist does have a tendency to split the difference – will feel unsatisfactory. The big strategic question suggests that he must go with the recommendations of the ISAF commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal or radically change direction.
If he goes for an additional 20,000 troops instead of the 40,000 requested then he will need all his powers of persuasion. Whatever course he chooses he must follow through on the pledge in his victory speech to ‘always be honest with you about the challenges we face.’
Credit where credit is due. This is a different America on the world stage and the stimulus bill was critical. There are some who already call the president deluded and allude to betrayal. But that’s not surprising. What is slightly surprising is how slowly the electrifying candidate has been to find his mojo in office.
Another aphorism in US politics is that ‘Washington always wins.’ As shown, there is cause for a healthy disdain of aphorism. If there’s one man who can find a way of breaking iron rules, it’s President Obama. Understandably, he keeps getting sidetracked, taking on Fox News rather than speaking to the American people. But he needs to discover his transcendent voice once again.
It’s been a good year since his iconic victory. To become a great president, he must remember what secured that victory. He was the voice, inspiration and guide for a people who had lost their way. Mid-term elections loom a year from now. This is the moment. There is a fierce urgency to now.