What Is With Our President?

Today on NRO JOHN FUND: As the Obama administration crashes and burns, insiders begin to blame Valerie Jarrett. Obama’s Éminence Grise. JONAH GOLDBERG: The wrong ideological choice has cost Obama dearly. Liberal Democrat, Accent on the Latter. CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: Show Americans what the party stands for. If the GOP Retakes the Senate . . .. MICHAEL BARONE: Republicans are on track to win a clear majority in the Senate. The Coming GOP Wave. SLIDESHOW: Secret Service Movies. Morning Jolt . . . with Jim Geraghty October 3, 2014 What Is With Our President? Contemplating President Obama’s confident -- and erroneous -- assurance that Ebola was unlikely to reach America, and that if it did, America’s hospitals and doctors were prepared to diagnose and respond immediately — a veteran speechwriter for cabinet officials wrote in: In the times that I was involved in speeches for various folks in the previous administration they and those around him were highly attuned to hyperbole and statements such the one Obama made about Ebola. Now people can crack wise about Iraqi intelligence and the like, but from my experience those officials and senior advisers I dealt with always were asking: “Is this right?” “Should I be saying this?” “Can I say this? Or should I say be saying it another way?” “I don’t want to be out on that limb.” I get no sense that anyone over there [in the Obama White House] ever asks those questions — about speeches, timing of remarks, guests who surround him for said utterances, etc. To illustrate his point, as the Ebola case in Dallas and the Islamic State’s advance in Iraq and Syria dominated the headlines, President Obama went to Northwestern University in Chicago and offered a speech on the economy, hitting all the familiar notes: student loans, raising the minimum wage, extend unemployment benefits.     Demote Harry Reid This Fall   Pivot to the economy. Again. He also declared, “while good, affordable health care might seem to be a fanged threat to freedom on Fox News, it turns out its 's working pretty well in the real world.” Polls of the American public say otherwise, Mr. President! Granted, we don’t want our president panicking on camera when ominous news strikes. But even his defenders would have to admit that Obama increasingly offers strangely muted, disconnected, or listless responses to frightening news developments. The day the plane was shot down over Ukraine, he offered some pro-forma comments before his well-worn infrastructure speech, then continued on to his scheduled fundraisers. He went to Texas for a series of fundraisers but refused to visit the border at the height of the humanitarian crisis of unattended children entering the United States. He denounced the beheading of an American, then immediately headed off to the golf course. Yesterday we noted Ace’s assessment that Obama says “Nothing to see here, folks, move on” to everything. There are four possible explanations for Obama's perpetual, "relax, there's no real crisis here, we've got this" tone, no matter the circumstance… Explanation One: “No-drama Obama" doesn't have a "crisis mode." He's spent his adult life in so many relatively calm, methodical, slow-paced institutions -- academia, the state legislature, part-time law career, the U.S. Senate — that he can't move or work fast. He's perpetually deliberative, taking his time, getting sucked into "analysis paralysis", looking for that elusive final piece of information that will clarify it all, ultimately basing his decision upon "what the experts say." (This means he needs reliable experts — not a HHS Secretary not being honest about the state of Healthcare.gov, a VA Secretary unaware of abuses within his own department, and so on.) On CNN, at the height of the VA scandal, Gloria Border quoted an unidentified former White House staffer saying, “People don’t like to tell him bad news. Part of it is the no-drama culture.” On a related note, whatever great analytical ability Obama may have once had, it's deteriorated . . . Ryan Lizza of The New Yorker offered a fascinating in-depth article about how the Obama White House makes decisions that suggested by the time the issue reached the president’s desk, the decision had already been narrowed down to a few similar options. Mickey Kaus summarized: The President’s decision-making method--at least as described in the piece--seems to consist mainly of checking boxes on memos his aides have written for him. . . . He’s asked about including medical malpractice reform in his health care bill, and writes (“in his characteristically cautious and reasonable style”) that “we should explore it.” . . . He’s presented a plan for a watered-down tax on multinationals or a very watered down tax. He writes “worth discussing.” . . . I’m sure Obama is smarter than this. He can’t be an executive who spends his days checking boxes, accepting the choices presented by his aides, never reaching outside them through unconventional channels or reaching unconventional thinkers, never throwing over the framework with which he is presented. The presidency is on autopilot, with policy and decisions largely set by the staff. Of course, the second-term administration team is considerably weaker than the first-term team.  Explanation Two: He does recognize how bad things are, but he realizes the only thing keeping his poll numbers above 40 is the public's short attention span and people's ability to tune out bad news. So no matter what happens, he HAS to act like it's no big deal, so that everyone can go about their business. The problem with this theory is that we would see or hear tales of Obama directing a behind-the-scenes crisis response from this White House. In fact, it’s the opposite; the lower-level folks seem more concerned than the bosses. Eli Lake reports a strange inertia: Within the American government, the threat was considered serious enough that the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command — the Pentagon’s elite hunter-killers — prepared detailed targeting packages for the group, with the specific locations of the group’s leaders. But those plans never made it to the White House, according to senior U.S. intelligence and Pentagon leaders . . . “The senior leadership in the military didn’t want to ask the question when they knew the answer would be ‘no,’” said the senior U.S. intelligence official quoted earlier about why the targeting packages were not sent to the White House in June. Explanation Three: Obama experienced some sort of psychological breakdown or "snapping" and is now reacting to serious problems in completely inappropriate ways, such as saying out loud how he would advise the Islamic State, etc. Remember back in 2011: We're told by a source inside the Times that the paper is preparing a story arguing that Obama no longer finds joy in the political back-and-forth, has seemed increasingly listless to associates, and is generally exhibiting the litany of signs that late-night cable commercials will tell you add up to depression.  Explanation Four: He’s too wedded to his previous stances and conclusions to realize when he’s made a mistake and adjust his approach. As my speechwriter friend concludes, “When your boss has told you — and the world — that he is the smartest guy in the room (‘I think that I’m a better speechwriter than my speechwriters. I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I’ll tell you right now that I’m gonna think I’m a better political director than my political director’) and even if you don’t believe it, it’s pretty difficult to tell the smartest guy in the room that he is wrong or perhaps might want to rethink something. Then again, if the smartest guy in the room didn’t bother to get the memo, let alone read it, then it all makes for the perfect storm.” A Fine, if Generic, List of Eleven Unifying Principles for the GOP The Tea Party Express feels warm and fuzzy about RNC chairman Reince Priebus. “As America approaches a critical midterm election, Chairman Priebus delivered a positive message of opportunity through conservative solutions. He is totally correct in stating that Republicans have to be more than opposed to Obama and the Democrats. Fortunately, led by many of the Tea Party-supported members of Congress, Republicans have been forthcoming with dozens of positive ideas to strengthen the American economy and give more opportunity to all Americans. “Priebus outlined the eleven principles that are exactly how Republicans will lead going forward. He highlighted Tea Party-ideas like Senator Rand Paul’s Economic Freedom Zones — a bold solution to combat poverty in the inner cities. In order to bring down energy costs and end America’s reliance of others for oil, Chairman Priebus pointed to Senator Ted Cruz’s Great American Energy Renaissance Act. And to train a 21st century workforce, he highlighted Senator Tim Scott’s SKILLS Act. You can check out Priebus’s speech here. The eleven principles are perfectly fine, but principles aren’t really the problem for the GOP, at least not compared to, say, not having an ability to turn their ideas into enacted policy in Washington. You’ll notice Priebus makes a fine loud-and-proud call for school choice . . . but not a word on Common Core. On immigration, he says: As a nation of immigrants, we must fix our broken immigration system. We can’t reward those who break the laws and punish those who lawfully wait in line. Legal immigration has strengthened this country, and we want to continue that legacy and protect the American worker. That’s pretty clearly anti-amnesty . . . but no real specifics on what happens to those here illegally. Priebus doesn’t have to lay out every little detail or a specific legislative agenda; that’s not the RNC chairman’s job. On the other hand, the principles — goals, really — aren’t what’s holding back the party today. ADDENDA: The sixth episode of my pop-culture podcast with Mickey White is now available. We touch on that awful crime and disappearance of the University of Virginia student, some of the new prime-time shows debuting this fall, and whether we would feel safe with the current Secret Service watching us. We need your help to give Harry Reid a demotion and send Washington a message! Click here to join our effort, and spread the word to your friends! Visit DemoteReid.com today. To read more, visit www.nationalreview.com Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up for NR's great free newsletters here. Save 75%... Subscribe to National Review magazine today and get 75% off the newsstand price. Click here for the print edition or here for the digital. National Review also makes a great gift! Click here to send a full-year of NR Digital or here to send the print edition to family, friends, and fellow conservatives. Follow Tweet NR Podcasts Send National Review, Inc. What National Review is Reading Order Today! 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