Also: Obama failed to hold us all to our nap times, and was stingy with cookies and gold stars when we pleased him. But he has constantly reminded us which of his various constituencies are not like the others.
“When I think about what we’ve done well and what we haven’t done well,” the president said, “the mistake of my first term – couple of years – was thinking that this job was just about getting the policy right. And that’s important. But the nature of this office is also to tell a story to the American people that gives them a sense of unity and purpose and optimism, especially during tough times.”
Mr. Obama acknowledged the dissonance between others’ perception of his strength as an expert orator, and his own.
“It’s funny – when I ran, everybody said, well he can give a good speech but can he actually manage the job?” he said. “And in my first two years, I think the notion was, ‘Well, he’s been juggling and managing a lot of stuff, but where’s the story that tells us where he’s going?’ And I think that was a legitimate criticism.”
Pressed by Rose about what he felt he needed to explain better to the American people, the president corrected that he wanted to do more “explaining, but also inspiring.”
Perhaps Mr. Obama is auditioning to take over Reading Rainbow next year.
The opposite campaign’s response to this pretty much writes itself, and so we hear from Mitt Romney, who the Obama campaign spent today accusing him of being so hypercompetent he could manage a multi-million dollar corporation and the Olympics at the same time.
President Obama believes that millions of Americans have lost their homes, their jobs and their livelihood because he failed to tell a good story. Being president is not about telling stories. Being president is about leading, and President Obama has failed to lead. No wonder Americans are losing faith in his presidency.
I think Barack Obama deserves a time-out.
Storytelling is all he and his ‘rrhoids have been doing. The problem is their stories are impossibly tall.
That and reality is not shaped by stories but events, actions and consequences. Obama seems to think that the laws of the universe can be altered purely by the application of Teleprompted hot air, I wonder how that’s working out for him?.
Hopium, it’s a hell of a (destructive) drug…
A Presidential Allegory – Lean Forward America.
http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2012/07/12/sodomy-for-the-sake-of-islam/
Oh, I don’t know. He’s told us lots of stories.
Like inflating tires will solve the energy crisis.
Or that his mom died because of mean, stingy insurance companies.
Or that doctors remove people’s organs for the fun of it and to pad their bills.
Or that that Islamic world’s misery and misogyny isn’t their fault but ours.
Or that Chicago was guaranteed to get the Olympics.
Or that millions of public work projects were shovel ready.
Or that the Arab Spring would work.
Or that the ocean levels would fall, world peace would erupt, the brotherhood of man flourish, unicorns would dance in the streets, and chickens come home to roost in every pot if we’d just get rid of that nasty-evil-bush-hitler and elect the Sun King to shine his glorious beneficence upon a nation too racist and bitter-clingy to really deserve such a enlightened deity come to Earth.
The biggest mistake of his first (and hopefully last) term was saying “I do” at his Inauguration.
Seriously, that was the peak for him. If he woulda just quit right then, nobody would’ve found out what a fool he is, not to mention an effing liar.
This is what the left always says. They never admit their policies failed because their perceived successes would be almost non-existent. It’s always the messaging.
no, I think his problem is his inability to hear and understand the stories of others, like the Republicans. of course he doesn’t *want* to, and THAT is the real failing.
iow, as usual he has it exactly bass-ackwards.
Good on Romney for a fast, pointed response. Which has been the norm for Romney.
…”the Obama campaign spent today accusing him of being so hypercompetent he could manage a multi-million dollar corporation and the Olympics at the same time.”
Good point.
Whaddya wanna bet that the Obama dirt squad is so ignorant of how corporations operate they still don’t understand why they are wrong…
But Mr. Preston, you do need to keep up. Today’s meme was Romney the Criminal, tomorrow’s theme – Romney is secretive, “the most secretive guy since Nixon”. (Do they go in a back room, look at Obama, see his flaws, and then deliberately project them onto Romney – or is this all subconscious? If it’s a plan, it’s not smart. Tu quoque only works if the other guy really did DO it.)
Obama has told plenty of stories, such as if you like your health care, you can keep it, and that he would not raise taxes on the middle class. It is time for Obama to start telling the truth.
obama or barry or whoever he is a story unto himself. Nothing about him is real, other than his absolute anti-Americanism, radical leanings, and intent to destroy the U.S.
It’s simple – that damn teleprompter just didn’t work hard enough!
Obama CANNOT tell the truth, if he did then he would need to be evacuated from the white house by special forces and flown to Guam before millions of Americans tore him limb from limb for destroying their lives.