The Obama Presidency Continues to Dim

SANTA FE, NM (Wire Services) January 14, 2011 — His health care law ushered in the most sweeping social legislation since the 1960s, but he abandoned the government-sponsored coverage he embraced during his campaign. His tax-cut compromise with Republicans to extend unemployment benefits and provide relief to the middle class discarded a key campaign promise to roll back Bush-era tax cuts for top earners. His Wall Street bailouts alienated some of the Main Street workers he said he was trying to help. His soaring rhetoric from the campaign often dried up during debates on health care and jobs.

Two years into his presidency, who is Barack Obama? Ronald Reagan stood firm for limited government and against communism. Bill Clinton stayed focused on the economy. George W. Bush launched a post-9/11 war on terrorism.

Obama "has clear policy views," says University of Chicago political scientist William Howell. But they become clouded in the public eye because "they're conjoined with a recognition that presidential power is contested ... and he gets very pragmatic very quickly."

Now, with Obama's second State of the Union Address scheduled for Tuesday and his second presidential campaign about to begin, the man who ran as an agent of "change" in 2008 and dubbed himself "no-drama Obama" will start to frame the rest of his presidency and present himself anew.

"Everyone adapts and adjusts in some way over time, but fundamentally he is the same person he was then — a very pragmatic person, a problem solver, someone who believes deeply in the core American bargain: You work hard, you meet your responsibilities, you have a chance to get ahead and live the life you work for and dream of," says White House senior adviser David Axelrod, who will head to Chicago at the end of the month to begin work on the campaign. "If there's one word I would use to describe Barack Obama it's 'consistency.' His values are consistent; his approach has been consistent."

Republicans paint him differently, of course.

GOP House Speaker John Boehner calls Obama's agenda a "nightmare" for America; the Republican National Committee last year linked Obama to socialism.

Liberals are no easier on him. Groups such as the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which accuses Obama of betraying those who helped him win the White House, say he's a sellout on issues from health care to tax cuts. Civil liberties organizations, such as Amnesty International, say he hasn't done enough to counter harsh Bush administration policies on torture and detention of terror suspects.

As the president begins his next campaign, he faces the possibility of more terrorist acts against the United States as well as the huge challenges of a stubborn near-double digit unemployment rate and runaway deficits.

Voters will have a host of ways to measure his leadership so far over the course of the next two years. Each of Obama's facets — from commander in chief of a nation at war to African-American role model — reveal something about his leadership skills and governing philosophy.

Already, many say he needs to improve. In a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll, 70% of Americans say he needs to be better at bringing about the changes the country needs, and 55% say he must do better at being a strong and decisive leader.

Here's a look at the Obama the nation is still getting to know.

Obama has dealt with crises, from rescuing failing auto companies to managing an environmental disaster off Louisiana to responding to what he called a "shellacking" at the polls in November, when voters gave Republicans control of the House and trimmed the Democrats' majority in the Senate by six seats.

That drive helped him score several political achievements in the "lame duck" post-election session of Congress, when Democrats still controlled both houses. Besides the tax deal with Republicans, Obama won Senate ratification of the new arms treaty and the repeal of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" ban on gays serving openly in the military.

Crisis management expert Jonathan Bernstein says that in times of economic trouble, a president "is the ultimate father-figure for the country, if you will." He adds, "If we think he feels good about how things are going, we'll believe it. JFK was very good at that; unfortunately, Barack Obama is not."

Wesleyan University government professor Elvin Yim, author of The Anti-Intellectual Presidency: The Decline of Presidential Rhetoric from George Washington to George W. Bush, says Obama is typically a better communicator as a campaigner than a leader.

The president speaks with "rhetorical spaciousness," Yim says, excelling when framing broad ideas but struggling when explaining policy such as on the economy, health care or even the government's response to last spring's devastating Gulf Coast oil spill.

Obama is "a lot like Ronald Reagan" when he speaks, Yim says. "People who love him think he's profound and sublime. ... People who hate him think he's simplistic."

This may be the most difficult role for any new president, and Obama took sharp criticism from the political right almost as soon as he was sworn in. Among the loudest voices: Former vice president Dick Cheney, who said during Obama's first year in office that the new president didn't seem to believe the nation was at war with terrorists.

On terror policy, however, Obama has taken many of his hits from the political left, which is disappointed he hasn't shuttered the Guantanamo Bay prison, put a stop to military commissions or ended some controversial Bush administration surveillance programs.

Otherwise, he gets generally positive reviews for his work as commander in chief.

Thomas Donnelly of the conservative American Enterprise Institute says Obama bungled the lead-up to his decision to increase troops by 30,000 in Afghanistan with an "ugly" drawn-out process in 2009 that made him seem indecisive.

But he credits Obama in other areas. "He was very savvy and very lucky in retaining (Defense) Secretary (Robert) Gates," a holdover from the Bush administration, he says. "That bought him an immense amount of credibility."

Retired Army general Paul Eaton, who ran the training of the Iraqi military from 2003 to 2004 and later criticized Bush's handling of the war in Iraq, says Obama's intellect and reserve wears well with the military.

In the Bush administration, "we had this bully-boy rhetoric, gunslinger walking down the street approach," Eaton says. "But the military's not a big swagger outfit. It's portrayed as that in film and myth, but we're a pretty sober bunch."

Stephen Biddle of the Council on Foreign Relations says Obama's handling of the scandal involving Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal also earned him credibility with the military. Obama fired McChrystal in June after he disparaged Vice President Biden and other senior administration officials in a Rolling Stone magazine article.

Obama's actions were "quick and decisive but appropriate," Biddle says. "The way a senior military officer would have done it himself."

A potential upcoming clash with military leaders: Defense department budget cuts as the administration tries to rein in deficit spending.

Like many predecessors, however, Obama has struggled to reinvigorate peace talks in the Middle East and has made little headway on efforts to stem Iran's nuclear ambitions or North Korea's aggression.

"Clearly he's a beloved global president," Rice University presidential historian Douglas Brinkley says, "but I'm not seeing where the benefits of that are coming into play."

Brian Darling of the conservative Heritage Foundation is more blunt: "There have been no achievements that this president can point to with regard to the Middle East, Iran or North Korea. "Axelrod cites the country's reset relations with Russia, culminating in Senate approval last month of a new nuclear-arms reduction treaty, and a commitment from Russia to put political pressure on Iran about its nuclear program.

Obama also traveled to Cairo in 2009 to deliver a speech aimed at repairing relations with the Muslim world, frayed in the years after 9/11.

Critics — among them conservative radio talk-show hosts Rush Limbaugh and potential GOP presidential contender Sarah Palin — call Obama a liberal, a job-killer, a big spender, even a socialist.

But as a family man and a role model, no one goes after Obama. And the new poll shows most voters — 61% — are satisfied with the president when it comes to "displaying strong moral character."