Has Obama Blown His Chance at Greatness?

I am afraid that President Obama has lost his opportunity to achieve greatness. Perhaps he simply is too young and inexperienced. Perhaps he simply is too liberal in the big government, anti-business traditions of the left.

For what ever reasons, Obama has lost his chance. This is so unfortunate. Not only for the well being of our nation economically but also for the strength of our social fabric and the ties that bind the many diverse Americans together.

We are continuing to see even greater polarity between the left and the right at a time when many of us thought we were electing a President who had the capacity to further unite Americans.

So what went wrong? I see two distinct possibilities. First to set the stage. While leaders can be classified into many distinct sets and subsets of personality types and management styles, one classification set that applies here is to distinguish between the "philosopher leader" and the "tactical leader". The philosopher looks at the big picture and wants to believe that a greater common good can be achieved by all. The tactician, on the other hand, looks at the current political landscape and develops strategies to gain individual political advantage. Tacticians love to go up against philosophers because their motives and future moves are easy to discern and to strategize against. By the same token, philosophers usually make lousy tacticians because they find it difficult to comprehend that others value personal/political tactical advantage more than the higher moral ground.

So what went wrong?

Scenario #1. Obama is a centrist philosopher who understands and agrees with both the social objectives of the left and the personal responsibility and free market philosophies of the right. As a realist with respect to his inexperience in the hardball politics of Washington DC, he understood from the outset that he needed a tactical implementer and overcompensated in the name of Rahm Emanuel. Thus Obama's Administration has been hijacked by a traditional, far-to-the-left of center tactician who has steered the administration away from the center and towards achieving long standing liberal objectives.

Scenario #2. Obama is a dyed-in-the-wool, far-to-the-left of center, liberal. He hired the right man in Emanuel to implement his ideology. The Obama Administration has not been hijacked at all. Rather the electorate has been duped by an extremely clever and articulate individual who was raised in a conservative environment, understands how they think and knows just what to say to appease them, while all the time holding their views with contempt and implementing the liberal agenda of the "enlightened progressive class".

Sadly, the more I observe this administration, the more I must conclude that we are in Scenario #2. Obama is extremely liberal and extremely adroit in coming off as a centrist, but only for show and not for real.

I do not think Obama has had the life experiences to truly understand how an economy should be managed or what roles government can and cannot effectively play in achieving social goals. Further, he has jettisoned those advisers who do (after they helped him to get elected by appealing to conservative and moderate voters.)

Obviously this is just one facet of a very complex person and personality. But it is a significant enough facet to conclude that Obama will most likely go down in history as being yet one more mediocre President at a time when the nation truly needed a strong unifying leader.