"I would love to see Barack Obama be Bulworth." — actor Sean Penn, on Piers Morgan Tonight in Oct. 2011.
A notion dating back to 2013, many had hoped it would have happened in the first term, but it has always been a constraint that being the first actual Black POTUS meant for a certain amount of caution. Fortunately it has returned as a meme.
Yet Mr. Obama also expresses exasperation. In private, he has talked longingly of “going Bulworth,” a reference to a little-remembered 1998 Warren Beatty movie about a senator who risked it all to say what he really thought.
While Mr. Beatty’s character had neither the power nor the platform of a president, the metaphor highlights Mr. Obama’s desire to be liberated from what he sees as the hindrances on him.
“Probably every president says that from time to time,” said David Axelrod, another longtime adviser who has heard Mr. Obama’s movie-inspired aspiration. “It’s probably cathartic just to say it. But the reality is that while you want to be truthful, you want to be straightforward, you also want to be practical about whatever you’re saying.”
The cinematic allusion seems striking given Mr. Obama’s rejection of Hollywood’s version of the White House, what one former aide calls “the Harry Potter theory of the presidency,” which suggests that he could wave a wand and make things happen. At the White House Correspondents Association dinner last month, he bristled at the idea that he should pattern himself after Michael Douglas’s assertive character in “The American President.”
Turning to Mr. Douglas, who was in the audience, he jokingly asked what his secret was. “Could it be that you were an actor in an Aaron Sorkin liberal fantasy?” Mr. Obama asked. He added later, “I get frustrated sometimes.”
Ezra Klein projects what PBO's going Bulworth might sound like:
The New York Times reported Thursday that President Obama frequently fantasizes to close aides about "going Bulworth," a reference to the 1998 movie in which Sen. Jay Bulworth, played by Warren Beatty, drops all pretense and begins saying exactly what he thinks. So I asked a number of ex-Obama aides and political consultants what the president would say if he went Bulworth. This post is based on those conversations -- it's what the people who have heard Obama vent about Washington in private believe he wishes he could say in public. That said, this is the Internet so let's be crystal clear: This is a work of fiction. Informed fiction, but fiction nevertheless.
Q: Sir, you've been criticized in recent weeks for being overly passive. And as you say here, it's your view the government isn't doing enough on the problems facing the American people. Isn't it up to you to lead?
OBAMA: Let me be clear. This kind of question right here is the problem. You have no idea what it actually is that you're asking. If you did, you wouldn't use the word "lead." You'd be specific. You'd say, shouldn't I be putting forward a budget that includes serious compromises on entitlement spending to show I'll meet the Republicans halfway. But I did that. You'd say shouldn't you be reaching out more to the Hill, trying to build some personal relationships with more congressional Republicans, maybe invite Paul Ryan to lunch? But I did that. You'd say, shouldn't you just sign an executive order repealing sequestration. But I can't do that, and you know that. You could say, why aren't you ordering the army to march on Capitol Hill and simply take the place over? But I'm not going to stage a coup, and you don't want me to.
So you use this word "lead." And it gives you cover. It lets you say the fault here is on both sides. The Republicans, they won't compromise, and they won't work with me, and they keep threatening to shut down the government or breach the debt ceiling. But, on the other hand, I'm not leading. And so it's all kind of even. And then no one can criticize you for being partisan. No one can say you're taking a side. No one can criticize you at all because no one can argue with the word "lead" until you define it, which you never do.
But let me be clear, you are taking a side. You're taking the side of this town not working again. You're taking the side of the media backing off of its role as a neutral arbiter and becoming an enabler of whatever irresponsible political strategy one party or the other happens to pick that week. You're taking the side of what's easy for you over what your readers and listeners need you to do.
Look, I'm happy to lead. I've sent young men and women to die in battle. I ordered a raid on Osama bin Laden's compound that, if it went wrong, could've destroyed my presidency. I made decisions to rescue banks and automakers that honestly turned my stomach. I've told my base things they really didn't want to hear on entitlements and the public option and the Bush tax cuts. I pushed health-care reform over the finish line even after the polls had dropped and everyone was saying it would be my Waterloo. I've proven that I'll lead. I need some Republicans to lead, too. That's the only way this works. Yes, in the front http://www.washingtonpost.com/...