The
Wall Street Journal is
reporting that President Obama has completed his move towards a proper understanding of modern presidential power and how to use it:
The Wall Street Journal says President Obama "has fundamentally shifted his view of modern presidential power" and "is now convinced the most essential part of his job, given politically divided Washington, is rallying public opinion to his side. As a result, if he wins a second term, Mr. Obama plans to remain in campaign mode."
"The president views a second term in some ways as a second chance, an opportunity to approach the office differently... He would like to tackle issues such as climate change, immigration, education and filibuster reform. He has told some aides that a sizable mistake at the start of his administration was his naiveté in thinking he could work with Republicans on weighty issues."
As a result, if he wins a second term, Mr. Obama plans to remain in campaign mode. "Barack is grayer, but he's wiser from the battles," says Charles Ogletree, a friend and one of Mr. Obama's professors at Harvard. "This time Barack will use the bully pulpit."
The extent to which he uses a strategy of generating voter support to pressure lawmakers to compromise on his agenda, aides say, depends on how much control Republicans retain in Congress.
But, aides also say, Mr. Obama has pledged to not again get bogged down in legislative sausage-making but to emphasize connecting with voters. Mr. Obama said in July that the mistake of his first years in office was his failure "to tell a story to the American people that gives them a sense of unity and purpose and optimism, especially during tough times."
He added in a CBS interview: "So, getting out of this town, spending more time with the American people, listening to them and also then being in a conversation with them about where do we go together as a country—I need to do a better job of that in my second term."
If you all read my blogs, you know I was very critical of the president's governing style in 2010, which I think was a good time to assess it. I wrote more than a few polemics for the front page about the topic. In my view, the primary responsibility of the president is leading the people. Mainly, leading them to understand the proper relationship between them and their government. This is the part of the job the White House did not attend to very well until after the debt ceiling debacle. Leading people is the most important aspect of presidential power. All other powers spring from it. It is the proverbial "bully pulpit" maxim. It is more important than a laundry list of legislation. It is more important than managing the bureaucracy. It is more important than commanding the troops.
With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it, nothing can succeed. Consequently he who moulds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions.
— Abraham Lincoln
Since Ronald Reagan, we have lived in an era where people understand their government to be a problem. Reagan famously said so his first day in office. The primary reason I supported Obama in 2006 for president was my hope he would use his powerful oratory to change this view of government. This, and only this, would make him a transformational leader. But President Obama instead turned himself ... diligently and largely successfully, into a uberlegislator. But without shifting the people's view of their government, everything he did legislate was watered down, or tossed out, or simply blocked. Ultimately, he decided that all Washington needed was better negotiating within a broken system. But he misunderstood why that system is broken: It is because people don't believe it works for them. They've been told ad nauseum for years that government is their enemy.
This isn't the first news story about the president's better undertanding of his job, but seeing it repeatedly is comforting. I believe it points to a more transformational and expansive Obama second term, which if successful will overshadow the political mistakes of the first. It certainly would have made for better legislation, a maintained Congressional majority, and an easier coast to a second term had he knew in 2009 what he knows now. But live and learn. And that trait, above all, is what makes for a great president.
By bbb on this topic:
On Presidential Leadership
Obama's Biggest Mistake
From Change Agent to Dealmaker
Obama's Honest and Accurate Self-Critique