The Dude

Over the past six months or so, I have taken a reduced capacity in the Obama-Needs-To Club. That is the group of armchair experts who loudly opine what Obama needs to do in order to achieve success on any number of issues. I learned early on that Obama had an impeccable intellect, and I am still learning just how deep it runs. The smarter I see he is the less advice I see he needs from someone like me. Still, there remain many critics who, bright as they are, can’t hold a candle to Obama when it comes to brainpower and who don’t get the fact that Obama does not need their advice either.

It was not even two months ago that Obama made an unpopular deal on taxes with Congressional Republicans. The Fantasy Politics players took to their own virtual Tahrir Square and blasted Obama for what they saw as weakness. Rachel Maddow snidely lectured how Obama was ushering in the era of his own irrelevance as she sucked her teeth and raised her right eyebrow (see AOTL “Fun Times” here). Weeks later the same members of the Obama-Needs-To Club were ecstatic at what the president had achieved in a matter of weeks during a Lame Duck session of Congress. They acted surprised, but none of them apologized for their snarky doubts even though they knew that what Obama had accomplished was directly linked to the tax deal which they derided him for.

Let us fast forward to the events in Egypt. There are many precarious situations any U.S. president must handle deftly. An uprising in an Arab country that is somewhat progressive for a dictatorship, yet still a dictatorship that tortures and receives the most U.S. foreign aid than any country besides Israel is one of those situations. However, the polit-erati clamored to shriek that “Obama needs to be more forceful in telling Egyptian president Mubarak to step down.” I wonder how people who are influential enough to speak daily on nationally televised shows can be so naïve. Surely these people know that when a U.S. president speaks, his words are copied in ink and not pencil.

This is not to say that anyone who believes Mubarak should have resigned was being capricious. The conviction of the people who stayed in Tahrir Square for 18 days was proof of a strong argument for his departure. The Rachel Maddows and Cenk Uygurs can scream that from the trees as long as they speak for themselves. They are talking heads. They don’t have the world of responsibility that someone sitting behind the desk in the Oval Office has. The things you can freely avow change greatly from where you sit.

While Obama came out in support of the Egyptian demonstrators he was cagey in his stance. He had some good words to say about Mubarak while still directing terse advice at him. Obama was also careful not to demand Mubarak’s resignation, choosing instead to focus on the “transition of power.” Obama was not cagey because he is weak, or because he is over his head. He was being smart as not to paint himself into a corner. Here is one of many scenarios that a long-range thinker like Obama needed to consider: 1. POTUS makes clear statement that it is time for Mubarak to go. 2. A week later demonstrations begin to thin out for whatever reason and Mubarak stays. 3. The Leader of the Free World has made a schmuck of himself. That’s how a president ushers in his own irrelevance, Rachel.

This dude Obama is way ahead of most, if not all of his critics even when it does not appear that way. This man has a job and it is not just opinion peddling on TV. He has proven that he is the right person for the office. He has been tremendously successful at delivering promises that aim to satisfy the very people who criticize how he delivers it. Personally, I’m tired of Obama making me look like a schmuck. I’ve learned my lesson that even when it doesn’t look like Obama is doing anything, he is getting things done. What more does he have to do to prove this? It is time the ONT Club had a little more faith in Obama. He has earned it!