It’s close to midnight in the Oval Office on January 19, 2017, in the waning hours of the Obama administration. Eight years after first promising hope and a change in the tone of our politics, the United States remains politically divided and the capital gridlocked. Thinking back, President Obama is left to ask, “What could I have done?”
This past weekend, the world saw something rare come out of Washington, DC, honesty. When Newark Mayor Cory Booker said on NBC’s Meet the Press that the Obama 2012 campaign ad on Mitt Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital was, “Nauseating to me on both sides. It’s nauseating to the American public. Enough is enough. Stop attacking private equity.” Bookers’ statement was a rare display of candor and honesty, something that caused many to pause and take note.
At his post-NATO Conference presser in Chicago Monday, President Obama disregarded the comment saying, “It’s important to recognize this issue is not a distraction. It’s part of the debate we are having in this election.” And yet, the president seemed to miss the point of the question. With the economy stumbling, Europe a lamentable mess, and foreign threats abroad; does the tone of the campaign need to be cheap attack ads?
What is so surprising, to me at least, is the zero-sum game mentality with which the President is waging his re-election battle. A stark contrast, and dare I say the antithesis, of his 2008 message. Indeed, even in a 2010 address at the University of Michigan, the President said,
President Obama’s strategy is reminiscent of Mama Rose, the main character in the musical fable Gypsy. Rose pushes her children mercilessly to become stars, only to have them become successful and literally disavow themselves from her. She’s left asking why; only to realize that it never was about them, it was about her.
The parallel is that President Obama is campaigning much more for himself, rather then for the country. He forgets that on Election Day, it’s not about him, but rather the country. Returning back to 2017 and the Oval Office, the President is having his Gypsy moment. As his own political curtain descends he may suddenly be faced with the thought that his service to the nation was, perhaps subconsciously, about himself. It’s a terrible thought, and one he may very well arrive at.
To watch Mayor Cory Booker’s comments on Meet the Press please visit: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032608/
Marquee Politics 