As our highly (self) esteemed President is learning, assuming authority automatically places accountability. Obama's severe narcissism compels him to interject himself into the limelight at every turn. Sadly for him (and for the rest of us who must share the consequences) his obsessively controlling and self-aggrandizing impulse also makes him the target for all the discontent, hostility and general anxiety we all feel.
Proverbs 16:18 tells us; "Pride [goeth] before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall."
For example: The explosion of the Deep Horizon and the ensuing ecological catastrophe are now inseparable parts of Obama's legacy. But not, as most will claim, because he did too little. Rather that oil slick laps at his heels because he (like many of his predecessors) assumes too much authority.
The President's job is to be the figurehead of the American people; our Commander in Chief; and the leader of national law enforcement. But for a long time (and becoming too painfully obvious in Obama) too many Presidents have assumed that they are in charge of the nation; that they are responsible for the economy, for education, housing, transportation, airliner inspections, and an endless list which always includes the fate of the unemployed, the sick and a host of feckless vagrants.
The irony of this over-reaching is that by attempting to create satisfactory conditions in all these spheres, the President must meddle. He must tinker. He must be a charismatic figure, brave commander, policeman and nanny. There is no way one can be all those things simultaneously and hope to perform satisfactorily in more than a couple of them.
Most Americans do not expect their President to be petroleum engineers, education experts, builders, financiers, public transit managers, aircraft mechanics or healthcare experts. They expect them to possess a larger than normal amount of integrity; display impeccable dignity, be and equal among kings, a scourge to despots, and a prudent, compassionate but ruthless commander. Mostly, they expect him to be wholly transparent and immediately forthcoming in regard to his past, his decisions and the inner workings of his administration.
Obama has failed miserably at the latter qualities and pretty much bollixed up the former; all due to his astronomically exaggerated ego.
Obama handily won election. He won running against an aging, out of touch member of the old guard that had just brought us two wars and a flagging economy. He won as the undisputed media darling - receiving virtually no meaningful scrutiny and only softball lobs of questions from dreamy-eyed sycophants at the networks. He won after eight years of a President whose character flaws, insensitivity and failure to grasp the American people's priorities could not have been more severe - or so we thought.
Less than two years into what will likely be the four longest years in modern politics, Obama has a long train of abuses, errors, capriciousness and callousness to his credit. The most glaring of which are the unnecessary and unwanted death match over Obamacare; the glaring impropriety of a sitting President condemning a sitting Governor for enforcing federal immigration laws which he himself refuses to enforce, then providing a foreign President a bully pulpit to castigate the embattled Governor as well.
And finally, the total bumbling of the Deep Horizon disaster, which could have been easily deflected; but due to ill-timed ignorance and Johnny-come-lately overreaching now sticks to his countenance like crude oil on a seagull.
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