In the wake of Tuesday’s elections, U.S. President Barack Obama cuts a lonely figure. In fact, he may end his term of office as the most isolated president since Richard Nixon. If that is the case, it will largely be a plight of his own making.
The isolation starts with the fact that from the beginning, for the president and his campaign team, it was never about the Democratic Party. It was never about the rest of their team in the administration. It was never about a network of international relationships. It was always about one man who was the product, the messenger, the mission, and the raison d’être all wrapped into one. And for the next two years, it seems highly likely that any brave post-election faces they try to put on this to the contrary, Obama will reap the results of his political and policy narcissism in a way that will not only be difficult for him personally but will be bad for America and its role in the world.
—David Rothkop, This Man Is an Island
It should be interesting. It’s too bad so many people are affected by it.
(If you’re interested there’s also the New York Times: President Obama Left Fighting for His Own Relevance.)
November 7, 2014
He seems to have accepted no responsibility for the losses that his party took on Tuesday, the party that he, by virtue of his office, is supposed to be the leader of.
Apparently he didn’t want to be leader of the Democrats. And he hurt Democratic candidates by saying voters would be voting for or against him, even though his name wasn’t on the ballot.
I’m glad “He got his 🙁 ” But it’s so “bad for America and its role in the world”.
We’ll have to see how it goes. He still has two more years and could very well focus more on foreign policy. Rothkop compares Obama to Nixon, and don’t forget the drastic change in foreign policy Nixon and Kissinger made in the early 1970’s. From losing the war against communists in Vietnam to opening up relations with China and negotiating arms control with the Soviet Union. Life is full of surprises.
I am a total news and political junkie, and will admit that even I found all the results a bit hard to watch and listen too. I do wonder what the next 2 years will bring, if anything?
I’m afraid I tuned out most of the news about the election while the campaigning was going on. I am interested in reading about how the Republicans managed to win, and apparently they learned a lot from the Democrats in previous elections about gathering information about individual voters and using that information to get out the vote. Apparently they also managed to defeat Tea Party candidates in the primaries and even conservative Republicans were running as more centrist.
I do worry about the environment and consumer protections with the Republicans. We’ll just have to see.
I personally believe that Obama will be remembered as a great president, assuming that the Affordable Care Act is not dismantled. I found the Democratic election strategy to be deplorable. Things are FAR better than 6 years ago in many ways, and the numbers bear that out. Why didn’t they stand on their accomplishments? Why did they run away from the good things they’ve done and try to be like the Republicans? Those are the questions that I’m left with.
Now we have a Senator who “does not believe in climate change” who will be heading a key environmental committee. How can one “not believe” in science? I’m at a loss to understand.
OK, I’m finished ranting. If I insulted your point of view at all, I apologize. However, you seem like a fair-minded person who won’t take personal offense from my views.
Whether or not global warming is caused mostly by burning fossil fuels, the world is heating up. The military knows that and is trying to make plans to deal with it, so some people in the government have some sense.
I don’t think Obama is a good leader, but I’m certainly not upset by people who disagree with me. In fact, Andy disagrees with me a lot more than you do (tonight he said the Democrats are Luddites and the Republicans are willing to try new things), and I even know people who are rooting for the Tea Party. I don’t take it personally. As I’ve said before, I think we’re all a bunch of nuts. The universe is so much more complicated than any of our little minds can understand that it doesn’t make sense to me for us to take ourselves so seriously.
I am pleased that my Democratic senator and representative won. ( I voted for them.) I’m sorry about what happened in Colorado. I’ll have to read more about the details there.
Thank you for commenting!
Just from reading the four original comments, two Republicans, two Democrats, I can see that Obama & the Republicans are an impossible match.
My point is Obama & Republicans are an impossible mix so nothing much will get done. I hope I’m wrong.
It’s not about Republicans vs Democrats. It’s about Obama hurting the Democrats in the recent elections.
If it was just about the man there wouldn’t be a problem – the man is still there!
Campaigning on a policy of hope sets you up for a big fall when others are disappointed (say by sending more troops to fight pointless wars in the middle east).
I agree. I liked it better when his policy was, “Don’t do anything stupid.”