The Guardian: How Barack Obama went from cool to cold

[alp227]

The presidency is not just the highest office in the land. It is in no small part a performance. To some extent Americans look to their president to articulate the mood and embody the aspirations of the nation, or at the very least that part of it that elected them. Presidents are not just judged on what they say and do but how they say and do it. It's not just what they achieve but how they are perceived, to the point where image trumps reality. Ronald Reagan raised the debt ceiling 17 times, ballooned the deficit, reduced tax loopholes and tax breaks. But he remains the darling of the Tea Party movement because he talked their talk, even if he didn't walk their walk.

With his soaring rhetoric and impassioned oratory Obama performed brilliantly as a candidate. But in office he has come across as aloof at a time of acute economic pain and insufficiently combative when faced with an increasingly polarised political culture. The former academic is regularly accused of taking too professorial a tone: talking down to the public rather than to them.

"Americans would like their president to be sick and needy," explains James Zogby, head of the Arab American Institute and executive member of the Democratic Executive Committee. "Bill Clinton would shake literally tens of thousands of hands every Christmas. Each person he'd meet would say: 'I think he remembered me.' Obama doesn't like to do it. No real person would like to do it. And therefore he doesn't do it. And people resent that. They want their president to really need them. He doesn't. He's OK, he's relaxed, cool, calm. I'd love him to call me up like Clinton would … people like that, he doesn't need it."

But come election day next year he will need them. And with his approval ratings languishing in the low 40s, it looks as though they might not be there for him.

full: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/13/barack-obama-cool-to-cold

[Nancy Waterman]

1. This is pathetic

It is more of the GOP's dark narrative posing as "truth". When I watch Obama, it is very clear to me how much he cares about Americans and wants the best for us. Even in polls, a majority feels he "cares" about their welfare, far more than they think the dimwit congress does. There is nothing cold about him. This is just bullshit and I am tired of it. Unrec!!

[slingsam]

2. you have no idea how much I agree with you.....

that it is bull excrement.

[secondwind]

4. I agree with you 100%.

[Tarheel_Dem]

8. Thank You. (nt)

[alcibiades_mystery]

13. +1000

[great white snark]

19. +1. Your post made me smile.

Smile in agreement. Thank you.

[Capn Sunshine]

25. ding!

Pathetic can be very popular when the website is crawling with paid disruptors and those whose agenda is to see the Democratic Party fail.

[ProSense]

3. Hmmm?

<...>

"Americans would like their president to be sick and needy," explains James Zogby, head of the Arab American Institute and executive member of the Democratic Executive Committee. "Bill Clinton would shake literally tens of thousands of hands every Christmas. Each person he'd meet would say: 'I think he remembered me.' Obama doesn't like to do it. No real person would like to do it. And therefore he doesn't do it. And people resent that. They want their president to really need them. He doesn't. He's OK, he's relaxed, cool, calm. I'd love him to call me up like Clinton would … people like that, he doesn't need it."

<...>



<...>

What drivel. Zogby? Really?

One day they're writing that his "likability is keeping him afloat", the next they're writing that he isn't likeable. And what the hell is with that photo of Bush? :rofl:

[Maccagirl]

5. The quote about Reagan though was a keeper (image vs reality)

I think, rightly or wrongly, with Obama what you see is what you get. He's an adult and can't bring himself to act otherwise-maybe the first president in my lifetime who is like that (with Jimmy Carter a close second). Does that translate into success-time will tell-but judging from the past...hmmm.

[Peregrine Took]

6. I may vote for him but I wouldn't go across the street to see him.

He has let me down too many times.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

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[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

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[zalinda]

16. We don't have jobs or money to spend on

an evening out, so we don't have much else to do. He said the buck stops with him. Or was that another of his lies?

zalinda

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

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[flamingdem]

10. Unrec - pile 'o crap out of England

We don't need an actor for Potus

[NMMNG]

23. The Guardian is one of the best papers in the world

I'll leave it to our friends across the pond to attend to your smear on England.

[ClarkUSA]

11. This op-ed author has Obama Derangement Syndrome. His other op-eds about Pres. O are just as loony.

Or shall I say PUMA-y?

[flamingdem]

12. aha, I'll have to check them out

to see what the pumaloonies across the pond think these days.

[MjolnirTime]

15. the Guardian is trash

[Safetykitten]

17. Not a fan of Obama, but this is the weirdest thing ever written on him.

[treestar]

18. I don't look to the President to embody my aspirations!

What drivel.

Obama has not come off as cold and aloof. What do these people on the left need? They ought to find people they know to help them out, instead of expecting the POTUS to deal with their emotional problems!

[Tarheel_Dem]

20. Still crap!

;)

[tallahasseedem]

21. I've started to see the meme crop up a few times...

in the last week, the first time on Hardball with Chris Matthews. It's nice to see that the RW talking points are catching fire outside of the US. :eyes:

Unrecommended.

[beltanefauve]

22. Yellow journalism

at its finest.:eyes:

[Starbucks Anarchist]

24. He's supposed to be Dr. Phil now?