What Obama believes is rather obvious to me: he believes he is the greatest. He knew everything about how the world should be run when he was 20. Perhaps now, with reality hitting him over the head and his self-preservation instincts dictating his actions, he is indeed working toward less radical goals. The real problem is that he lacks the humility to analyze his own mistaken thinking. He just tacks a new layer on the Obama persona and moves on. He has not explained why his promises and actions have and must have differed. His response to his disappointing results as community organizer was that he needed more power. The only thing I have heard about his failed judgement was that the Rezko deal was boneheaded, which simply means he was caught. I haven’t seen that it inspired more cautiousness about grand schemes or greater follow-up on the real results of legislation. Had this occurred, he would have been more involoved in the stimulus and cap-and-trade bills. Instead, he just plows ahead with the next scheme to save the world.
The big difference is that previously Obama could choose his venues, moving from the poor South Side to Hyde Park to the moneyed connections in the Loop. World affairs won’t give him this space to operate. Powder kegs don’t wait in line till it’s their turn to blow. Had he thought more about his own immature thinking, had he developed a more mature world view, he would have had a sounder basis for responding to crises. As it is everyone will soon know that he is winging it.
