President Obama’s “surprise” press conference Monday was supposed to prove that the man leading the country at a time of considerable distress is firmly in charge, even as he spends much of his time fighting for re-election. Don’t buy it.
It’s been two months since the president spoke to the media, and not because there aren’t big issues at hand: an economy that continues to stumble, high unemployment and energy prices, global unrest . . .
The president should have his hands full. Yet even before his reelection campaign kicked into high gear, there was mounting evidence that Obama may love to give speeches, think deep thoughts and hammer his opponents, but he hates the nitty-gritty of governing.
In fact, based on much of the evidence over the past three-plus years, it’s hard to think of another recent president who cares less about the actual job of running the country.
OK, getting bogged down in minute details is something the leader of a great nation (and the Free World) should avoid. One of Jimmy Carter’s many negatives was said to be his insistence on being in the middle of every decision, including setting the schedule of the White House tennis court.
President Reagan was known as a delegator, but even after being shot during his first term he continued his relentless pursuit of an ambitious agenda that involved massive changes to the economy, including tax cuts and deregulation that spurred years of economic growth and a military buildup that brought the Soviet Union to its knees.
And I don’t think anyone would accuse either Bill Clinton or George W. Bush of not being engaged.
Contrast that with Obama: A brilliant orator, an articulate spokesman for left-wing policies and a relentless campaigner — but not a president who takes his day-to-day responsibilities very seriously.
How do I know this? Well, that’s the word from people who know him, including many long-time Democrats. Not all may be ready to jump ship and vote for Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan (though some, like the head of his Jobs Council, GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt, clearly are). But they are coming to the conclusion that, for all the president’s positives, he has a blind spot when it comes to his core executive duties.
Exhibit A: his hastily crafted “stimulus program,” where nearly $1 trillion in taxpayer money was spent with little direction from the president.
“The stimulus package failed because it was all over the map. It was not a targeted, clear jobs-creation program,” Arianna Huffington, the creator of The Huffington Post, told me during an online debate.
Others are less charitable; one big reason they say the stimulus plan was such a flop (unemployment was supposed to be around 5 percent by now, not above 8 percent) is that Obama didn’t care how it was carried out and let Congress, namely then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, handle details.
Thus, many of the shovel-ready jobs the stimulus plan was to create never materialized. Money was handed to states to keep their government large or used to seed boondoggles like the failed Solyndra solar-panel company.
Indeed, go down the line — from the Dodd Frank financial reform to even ObamaCare, the president’s “signature” legislative achievement — and you will find they’re all products of a chief executive who chose to sit out the hard work. The result: incoherent and harmful new laws.
Big banks still don’t know many of the final rules of Dodd Frank, more than two years after Obama signed it into law — because it is so unwieldy. As for ObamaCare, Pelosi once said Congress has to “pass the bill so you can find out what is in it.” Yet even now, most people in Congress, the medical community and likely even Obama himself can’t tell you what’s really in it.
The root cause of the Obama governing malaise can be found in his core group of advisers. Former Democratic lawmakers say he rarely meets with seasoned hands of the Democratic Party, much less the opposition, to get stuff done.
He hasn’t met with his so-called Jobs Council — a group of CEOs who advise the president on the economy — for most of this year, despite the lousy economy. When he did, the conversations, I’m told, were lame — a major reason Immelt tells friends he’s going to vote for Romney, despite the perks GE got from this administration.
Instead, Obama relies on political hacks and cronies from his days in Chicago, including White House adviser Valerie Jarrett — people who have little governing experience, particularly in the national arena — while he farms out the rest of his agenda to his pals in Congress.
Four years ago, President Obama sold himself as someone who would be tirelessly working for the American people. Yet he hardly looks tired on the campaign trail — and now you know why.
Charles Gasparino is a Fox Business Network senior correspondent.