The Homa Files

“Trope”: a common or overused theme or device.

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Excerpted from WSJ, “The unbearable lightness of Obama’s administration”, Peggy Noonan, March 20, 2009

There is something insubstantial and weightless in the administration’s economic pronouncements and policies.

The president seems everywhere and nowhere, not fully focused on the matters at hand. He’s trying to keep up with the news cycle with less and less to say.

The administration seems buffeted, ad hoc. Policy seems makeshift, provisional.  “The administration has an economic program. But there is, so far, no clear statement of the thinking behind the program.”

This in part is why the teleprompter trope is taking off.

Mr. Obama uses it more than previous presidents. No one would care about this or much notice it as long as he showed competence, and the promise of success. 

But the teleprompter trope has taken off: Why does he always have to depend on that thing?

The fact is that Mr. Obama only has two jobs, but they’re huge. The first is to pull us out of an economic death spiral—to save the banks, get them lending, fix the mortgage mess, address unemployment, forestall inflation. TARP, TALF, financial oversight and regulation of Wall Street—all of this is enormously complex, involving questions of scale, emphasis and direction. All else—windmills, green technology, remaking health care—is secondary. The economy is the domestic issue now, and for the next three years at least.

Mr. Obama’s second job is America’s safety at home and in the world.

These are the two great issues, the economic crisis and our safety. In the face of them, what strikes one is the weightlessness of the Obama administration, the jumping from issue to issue and venue to venue from day to day.

Isaiah Berlin famously suggested a leader is a fox or a hedgehog. The fox knows many things but the hedgehog knows one big thing. In political leadership the hedgehog has certain significant advantages, focus and clarity of vision among them. Most presidents are one or the other. So far Mr. Obama seems neither.

Leadership is needed here. Not talkership, leadership.  

Full commentary:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123750000839989123.html

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There is a new Web site where the President’s teleprompter shares its thoughts in a breathless White House diary. It’s bummed that it has to work a news conference next week instead of watching “American Idol,” it resents being dragged to L.A. in Air Force One’s cargo hold “with the more common electronic equipment.” It also Twitters: “We are in California! One of the interns gave my panels a quick scrub and I’m ready to prompt for the day.” And: “Waiting for my boss’s jokes to get loaded for Leno!”

Teleprompter blog:
http://baracksteleprompter.blogspot.com

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This entry was posted on March 23, 2009 at 7:59 am and is filed under Obama Administration. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.