“People try so hard to believe in leaders now, pitifully hard. But we no sooner get a popular reformer or politician or soldier or philosopher – a Roosevelt, a Shaw, a Nietzsche, than the cross-currents of criticism wash him away. My Lord, no man can stand prominence these days. It’s the surest path to obscurity. People get sick of hearing the same name over and over.” F. Scott Fitzgerald – This Side of Paradise
I am currently reading the book that the above quote came from. And it made me think of Obama. Such a deified and reverred figure in ever worrisome and troubling times. We all bought the books, YouTubed the speeches and many of us sat pissy-eyed and happy in packed bars when he was elected. After all the heights he rose to in the process of merely getting elected, there is something relatively ordinary and mundane about the process of watching him simply do a job.
As a caveat I will say this. I think he is doing a great job. Presidents rarely arrive with such thunder and expectation and it seems people were wanting to present definitive assessments on whether or not he’d failed within the first few weeks. Compared to such eloquent campaign rhetoric, day-to-day administerial mishaps seemed base and awkward. We had the usual political squabblings and kinks in the appointment process. Rivals chose not to cooperate. It all seemed woefully clumsy.
Approval ratings remain high. People seem generally pleased and hopeful. And why not? In six and a bit weeks in the hot-seat we’ve seen a massive stimulus package passed with huge emphasis on green technology, states allowed to set their own stricter environmental laws and restrictions, and the process of closing the Guantanamo Bay prison and withdrawing troops from Iraq has begun. A good start. Sure, he increased the budget deficit hugely; but such pills must be swallowed if you expect the government to carry the financial sector to safety on its back.
There’s such an undercurrent to much of what I read from the American press about Obama. Coverage of his campaign comes doused in cynicism and speculation as to whether he’ll succeed, and whether this path leads to safety. Hungry scribes sit poised and ready to scold Obama; with little to work with they turn to the lunatic voices of Rush Limbaugh and Anne Coulter to keep some sort of negativity in balance to all this positive change stuff. Objectivity is at its most futile when Limbaugh and Coulter are presented as credible voices (This Just In: Dogs Hate Cats! ); it is a sad fact of life that for many, they are. Such poisonous voices shouldn’t be lent even further credence by centrist mainstream media. CNN constantly rely on hyping up every negative John McCain remark, as if it is some kind of revelation that the guy who also wanted the job thinks he could’ve done better.
It can be dangerous to set the bar high for yourself. But suspicion should not let us get away of appreciating what is, and stopping us from giving someone at least half a chance before writing them off. Here’s hoping.
