Prejudice

[geezer_also]

Thinking about the discussion the other day on how the tea party is: bad, evil, bigoted, ignorant, etc (choose your favorite adjective). Accepting, for the moment, the general consensus, that there is no ism without power (the idea that there can be no reverse discrimination, since there is no power on the other side). Accepting also that it is

Comments

[underlankers]

The problem with the President is that he assumes he can lead by simple statements the Democrats in Congress. Congress and the Presidency have never worked like that and it's never worked any time it's been tried. Pelosi and Reid are people he'd need to either conciliate (the carrot) or browbeat (the stick) into working according to what he wants and the evidence to me indicates that Pelosi and Reid ran two separate parts of the Democratic Party while the President ran a third.

In a time of economic recession the appearance of dynamic leadership means more even than usual, and in politics appearance can be far beyond reality, something Reagan *did* master as far as his leadership style. The President gives a good speech, but tends to avoid appearances of following it up with action, which as things have shown is a no-win.

What truly makes him mediocre, however, is the continual ignoring the base on some rather big foreign policy concerns. The only one he's delivered on is the withdrawal from Iraq, which in contrast to Nixon's from Nam has been well-organized and well-handled. Gitmo remains in effect, he's never done anything with Bush's Super-Presidency, he made the decision to refuse to try the Bush Administration which may, if society shifts in a certain way in the long term be held akin to Ford's pardoning Nixon but but at present means people attack him badly from both ends.

For all this, he's a great guy, a good basketball player, and a devoted family man and his foreign policy has yet to produce the stinkers that Jimmy Carter and Bush I did.