Racing Along: My Two Cents on Knowing When to Stop Running

Spare Change | April 10, 2009 | David J Aland

[Natty Bumppo@frontier.net]

Contrary to what Attorney General Holder may think, there are many Americans who are not cowardly about discussing race. Author Tavis Smiley, for example, is urging citizens to “get past race” when assessing the President, and columnist Eugene Robinson marvels that race is never mentioned in criticism of the President. In a way, they both miss the point. The only race that matters at this point is the steeplechase of the next four years, and the length of that race to come.

Long-distance runners will tell you that there are some universal rules: “don’t start too fast or tire too soon,” and “don’t compete with other runners as much as compete with the course.” It’s the pace, and not the race.

The President has come out of the gates hard, obviously hoping to capitalize on his celebrity from the campaign to set an agenda for the long stretches of governance ahead. It’s a risky strategy that is often more about running away from the competition than running towards something else, and riskier still for a neophyte or anyone whose preparation has not readied them for the challenges ahead.

This is where the skillful manipulation of race during the campaign may both help and hinder the President. His approval ratings remain high amongst African-Americans, but are already sagging in every other demographic. While that may help sustain the buzz of his historic campaign, it may be as transient as a real-estate bubble. Every elected official knows that governing is different from running, and voters are notoriously fickle. The canny politico scores points in the new context quickly.

Obama is no different, but his choices betray him. Like Hugo Chavez, he is in danger of counting too much on charisma. Starting with Tim Geithner, Obama quickly surrounded himself with a collection of toxic assets: Rahm Emanuel, the cliché Chicago ward boss; Ron Sims, whose reputation for “transparency” is, to say the least, obscure; Eric Holder, who never saw a judicial opinion he couldn’t second-guess; John Holdren, whose environmental pop-science betrays his unscientific agenda; and Hillary Clinton, whose “diplomacy” as First Lady has now gone global.

This administration is very quickly getting a reputation for pop-style but no substance. Renaming the “Global War on Terrorism”, for example, is about as useful as calling Somali pirates “aggressive stowaways.” The candidate who promised to change America’s image seems only capable of changing it for the worse. One British pundit has already taken to calling the President “Obama Pantywaist.” Try that one with the focus groups.

In Turkey, Obama stroked the Islamists to the dismay of the struggling secularist government. The First Family fondled the British Queen and Obama groveled for the Saudi King. Facing deliberate tests and provocations from the Chinese, North Koreans, Iranians, and Russians, the White House repeatedly chose feebly nuanced nothings. Contrary to the President’s finger-shaking speeches, words and agreements do not have consequences. The crew of a container ship recently demonstrated more ideological integrity than the President. As the European concert tour ends, Obama has come home with exactly nothing from both friends and adversaries, but left the impression that we Americans have lost our collective spine in our ongoing recession obsession.

In the meantime, the government is making hostile take-overs of banks and industries, hiring and firing executives, and grasping for even more control over who works, what they produce, and what they are paid. The Wall Street Journal reported this week that some banks, nervous over the encroachments of Washington, attempted to return their bailout funds, only to be rebuffed – it appears that solvency is less important than control.

The Presidency is a long-distance course, and not a race, yet the President has not yet abandoned his habit of doing the one thing he does best – running for office. But this is no longer a Presidential race, but the long run that is the Presidency. Obama needs to pace himself, stop signing bills he hasn’t read, stop outsourcing policy, stop hiring fools, stop winging it, stop shaking his finger at the world, stop apologizing, stop campaigning, and stop playing to the applause.

Sometimes a runner just needs to stop. There’s really only one run that counts now, and in the truly long run, it may be our only hope.

[cbkaty]

Obama needs to pace himself, stop signing bills he hasn’t read, stop outsourcing policy, stop hiring fools, stop winging it, stop shaking his finger at the world, stop apologizing, stop campaigning, and stop playing to the applause.

I love it! Keep up the goofy performance O-Man.....Americans eventually awake....