The President is not your Daddy

Sunday, 10th January 2010

Maureen Dowd is a lovely person but this is a truly terrible column.

No Drama Obama is reticent about displays of emotion. The Spock in him needs to exert mental and emotional control. That is why he stubbornly insists on staying aloof and setting his own deliberate pace for responding — whether it’s in a debate or after a debacle. But it’s not O.K. to be cool about national security when Americans are scared.

Our professorial president is no feckless W., biking through Katrina. He is no doubt on top of the crisis in terms of studying it top to bottom. But his inner certainty creates an outer disconnect.

He’s so sure of himself and his actions that he fails to see that he misses the moment to be president — to be the strong father who protects the home from invaders, who reassures and instructs the public at traumatic moments.

He’s more like the aloof father who’s turned the Situation Room into a Seminar Room.

Emphasis added. Because, obviously, what we need is politics to be more like some ghastly amalgam of Dr Phil and Oprah. There are plenty of reasons why good people might take a sceptical view of much of Obama's policy agenda but this ain't one of them.

As Matt Yglesias says:

Reassuring children is a job for parents. Treating adults like they’re little children is, perhaps, a job for newspaper columnists.

True that, though of course politicians also treat adults as though they're children all the time. Oh for a Baldwin or a Coolidge! Alas, alas and all that...

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Sir Graphus

January 11th, 2010 12:10pm Report this comment

I blame feminism. I think. Or was it the hippies in the 60s? And I speak as an inveterate Neil Young fan.

Anyway. Fathers are now expected to change nappies and cook suppers. I do and did all this. Lots of parents say "I'm not really a parent, I try to be more like a friend". Bollocks. I'm a parent to my children, which means I'll tell them when they're wrong, give them money and never leave them, and always have a roof over their heads should they need it. They need it quite a lot at present because the oldest one is 10.

In the same way, I don't want a touchy feely president or govt, though, consciously or subconsciously, the electorate seem to want that. That's what New Labour gave us. I'd prefer a govt that knew how to govern, and would run the economy, schools, wars etc competently. I'd like a man in a suit who clearly understands his complex brief. We've not had this for 12 years, and Dave seems to be from the same stable on that front.

Conservative Cabbie

January 11th, 2010 12:44pm Report this comment

Whilst Dowd goes over the top (when doesn't she), I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that Obama risks being too detached from the worries that Americans have when faced with terrorism. A rational approach is fine as long as it is joined with empathy. Only by understanding the concerns of the American people can Obama show any leadership, which is something that I don't think can be questioned as a desirable trait in a President.

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