Quote:
Originally Posted by crweeks64
I guess we will have to agree to disagree on President Obama's leadership or lack thereof and his indecisiveness. As I said history will tell.
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Obama has a problem that Kennedy had. He does not engage Congress in a confrontational manner. His history is to work by consensus. That works when others are working for what matters - in this case the advancement of America.
But we know extremists do not want to advance America. Rush Limbaugh defined an extremist agenda - "We want America to fail." In a Congress with too many holding that attitude, Obama's 'leadership by consensus' will not work.
That (not Obama's overall leadership) is what Panetta, et al have been critical of.
Kennedy was similar. He was incapable of pushing Congress into passing a Civil Rights Bill. He could see strategic concepts but could not do the little 'day to day' button hole politics that manipulate Congress. Johnson was a master at that. One would think Kennedy used Johnson to manipulate Congress. He didn't.
Obama was discussing solutions to the nation’s deficit problems with Boehner. Boehner and Obama were doing what both are good at - negotiating in good faith to create a good working solution. That was until the extremist Cantor found out about it. Boehner remembers what happened to Gingrich. He should. He was part of the gang that stabbed Gingrich in the back; eventually drove Gingrich from Congress. Cantor and his Tea Party extremists threatened to do same to Boehner. So Boehner reversed himself, stopped working with Obama, and would not even take the President's phone calls. Either he advanced America by working with Obama, or played politics to save his job. Boehner had no choice. Congress and Boehner have been adversarial.
Obama does not work well with adversarials who negotiate in bad faith. That is the soft underbelly of his leadership. He was superb in situations that required balls (ie getting bin Laden, the Assad red line, convincing Generals to abandon their 'another decade of war' in Afghanistan). But does badly when his partner negotiates in bad faith - only want to destroy negotiations (ie Netanyahu). Obama does not have skills that, for example, Johnson was a master of.