Obama In Full: The Man We Thought Might Be In There, State of the Union

Returning each summer from my infamously monastic sojourn at the university, I would pursue what any hot blooded twenty something would among the fields of romantic  play in my hometown. But I approached my desired goals incrementally, cautiously, not wanting to push too hard, dating some likely object of desire, and not wanting to get ahead of her responses,  I did not reveal my desires and intentions and feelings until about two weeks before I had to leave and go back to the monastery. The pattern emerged, every summer, in which by mid August the young lady in question would say, "I wish you had said all  this sooner. But now you're almost gone." The revelation of inner self had occurred too late.

I had much the same feeling listening to the President last night.  Why did it take him this long to be the man we thought he could be? The man I liked so much when he first appeared in 2004, the man who spoke plainly, confidently, who was challenging but reasonable has been missing in action.  Why has it taken him so long to reveal that inner Obama?

Last night, he went back to the theme from his seminal 2004 speech, that we are not Red or Blue or Purple Americans, and we ought not divide ourselves. He spoke of making the rich pay for what all of us have provided. He sought common ground: Surely we can all applaud the falling teen pregnancy and we can applaud falling abortion rates--and the implication was "pass the over the counter birth control pill law." He spoke of the injustice to young Black males harassed (without mentioning stop and frisk) and he spoke of the fear of the wives of policemen for their husbands' safety.

Of course, the Republican response was instant rejection, and the messenger was none other than Maud's favorite Senator from Iowa, the master castrator-in-chief, Senator Joni Ernst. And, as is typical of Republicans, they all read from the same book of Hymns and Verses, obviously handed out before the speech so they could read from the same page in the interviews which followed.

The best part of the speech was unscripted, when Obama said he was no longer running for anything--and some Republicans applauded. President Obama did not miss a beat:   A sly smile crossed his face, and he said, "That's right. And I'm not running because I won both of those elections." Thunderous applause from the Left and sour looks from the thoroughly outclassed Republicans.

There were many good lines--we can do more for our infrastructure and energy economy than build a single pipeline.  Nice zinger.

Unfortunately, a single speech might catapult you into the race for the Presidency, but it cannot change the direction of governance. As Mr. Obama said, governing wisely is not done in headlines or single moments.  He slammed his predecessor by remarking the response to a terrorist attack should not be bluster and an intemperate headlong rush into military action. "That's what our enemies want us to do." I do wish he had said, "So when George W. Bush rushed to send American youth to die in Iraq, he provided Al Qaeda just what they wanted--easy targets."

His presidency has been the slow and deliberate response--to the border crisis, to the problems with the roll out of Obamacare, but the problem with that slow and deliberate approach is that, while it solves problems, everyone has forgotten about the problem by the time it's solved, so the accumulation of effect is--oh, Obama, he can't do anything. Which is to say, he can't solve each problem in each news cycle instantly, so he must not be solving any problems.

As Paul Krugman has pointed out in recent columns, the Obama presidency has been remarkably successful--the economy was saved from the banking crisis which the Republicans created with deregulation; health care has been finally, if imperfectly extended to the masses, Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive. By every reckoning, by every measure, the man has had a very good run. Except for perception. 

You get the leaders you deserve, most of the time. Sometimes--Lincoln, Roosevelt and now Obama--you get better than you deserve.