The Obama Show

Stanley Fish
NY Times

The received wisdom is that President Obama had a bad August and a not so great early September, what with contentious town-hall meetings, high unemployment numbers, falling poll numbers, less than firm support from members of his own party, biting Republican attacks on Obama-care, questions about his citizenship and his loyalty, dark suspicions of his motives for speaking to schoolchildren, comparisons with Hitler, accusations of socialism and being branded in public as a liar. He has been criticized for not making his case, and for making his case too often (see Mark Leibovich’s piece on overexposure). Every speech he makes is said to be the speech on which the viability of his presidency depends. Expectations of a Republican revival, once abysmally low, rise every day. Commentators predict that it will soon be 1994 in America again.

But there is a surprising upside to all this bad news: because he is the object of unceasing criticism, Obama is also the object of unceasing attention. Day after day and night after night his is the face we see and the voice we hear. (On Sunday, we could have seen and heard him on five networks.) Like Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, he bestrides the political landscape like a colossus.

Every administration takes its name from the president, but in this administration the president seems to be the only one performing. Cabinet members and party leaders barely rise to the status of supporting players. Even when they’re in the room, as Arne Duncan was when the schoolchildren were exhorted to study hard, they fade into the background.

At a Montana town meeting, Obama kept referring to “Max and I,” but rather than giving Senator Baucus a share of the spotlight, the repeated invocation of his name came across as a piece of coercion: you’re going to do the right thing, aren’t you, Max? (Baucus wasn’t smiling.)

Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner stumbled a bit in his first public appearance as the expert on the financial crisis and has barely been heard from again. Robert Gates is certainly secretary of defense, but speculations about Afghanistan and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict center on what Obama will do. Health care is on everyone’s mind, but how many people could name the current secretary of health and human services if their lives depended on it? Ray Lahood is the secretary of transportation, but when it came time to explain the GM bailout to the American people, guess who did it?

I’m sure that Hilary Clinton is doing important work as secretary of state, but the only time she’s been in the news beyond a single cycle was when she bridled at a question about her husband. Harry Reid turns up on evening newscasts, not to say anything significant, but to look ineffectual. Nancy Pelosi periodically announces that no health care reform without a public option will be acceptable, but no one in the White House seems to be afraid of her. Vice President Biden’s big moment in the sun came when he had a beer with Obama and two other guys: no record of what he said.

The only political figures who pronounce regularly and firmly on matters of current concern are David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel, and everyone knows that their job is to carry Obama’s message.

Contrast this with previous administrations. George W. Bush was only one of the players on his team, and was thought by many to be overshadowed by Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and, at times, even John Bolton. Bill Clinton was a commanding figure, but so, in their ways, were Al Gore, Madeleine Albright, Donna Shalala, Janet Reno, Robert Reich and Robert Rubin.

In the administration of the elder Bush, James Baker, Jack Kemp, Lamar Alexander and Elizabeth Dole all had high profiles. Jimmy Carter had to share press coverage with Cyrus Vance, Edmund Muskie and Griffin Bell, in addition to his brother Billy. Obama doesn’t even have embarrassments to explain away, at least not for long. He got rid of Reverend Wright before he was nominated. He distanced himself from Bill Ayers in a sentence. Tainted cabinet nominees went away in hours. Van Jones disappeared over a long weekend. New York governor David Paterson just got thrown under the bus.

And his opponents? Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Jim Demint, Joe Wilson. As these pygmies shoot their little arrows, Obama stands there shaking them off and accepting apologies. (The real opposition heavyweights like John McCain and Newt Gingrich moderate their words.) Rather than responding to the charges against him, he deploys them as comic material at the beginning of speeches. While his opponents get arm-weary — it must be discouraging to throw so many punches to so little effect — he just keeps rolling along. He takes shot after shot, and not only is he still standing, he’s still smiling.

A version of this strategy is being played out around the health care debate. The current thinking is that Obama may have made a mistake by giving the responsibility of coming up with a bill to Congress. After months of activity there are now five bills, thousands of pages of reports and no resolution. Everyone is frustrated and exhausted — everyone, that is, but Obama, who picked this moment to get off the sidelines and make a big speech that said in effect, O.K., now let’s get going. Control of the process has now passed to him if only because he alone has enough energy left to direct it.

Of course, what will happen remains unclear. But whatever happens, Obama’s stature — his size relative to the size of all others in the field — will not be diminished. If health care reform is achieved, he will get the credit. If it is not, the blame will be distributed among all those whose exertions he encouraged by appearing to do nothing. And when it is all over, it will still be all Obama, all of the time.
http://fish.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/21/the-obama-show/?8ty&emc=ty