The Irrelevant President

How better to describe the White House occupant who puts combating global warming, resettling Syrian refugees and closing Guantanamo Bay as his top policies?

The American public’s focus is quite different.  Over sixty percent believe primary attention should be directed to fighting ISIS, terrorism and strengthening the economy. 

To be sure, the president’s base of thirty-five to forty percent is unshakable.  What he wants, they want.  Speaking only to one’s base – and basking in its blind loyalty – can be comforting and reassuring.  But it is not leadership.  A leader has a duty to lead, even if that means giving direction from behind. 

Failing to do so relegates the president to the role of a spokesman for a minority rather than chief representative for the broader nation. 

For most Americans, this means that when Barack Obama says and does is irrelevant.  He doesn’t speak for them.

What a sad commentary for a black politician who launched his presidential campaign by winning the Democratic Party’s caucus in nearly all-white Iowa.  He had a right to claim, as he did, that his candidacy held the promise of a post-partisan and post-racial America.

In reality, his presidency has been neither but has fueled the divisive elements of both.

Barack Obama is a president who now looks much smaller than the image of 2008 which was said to personify positive hope and change. 

History will not look kindly on the man who squandered so many opportunities to make lasting differences of which America could be proud.