The Overrated Obama

My Red State colleague, Jeff Charles, has already reported on former President Barack Obama’s recent attempted public shaming of black men who don’t want to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris, supposedly because of their misogyny.

I would like to associate with most of his column. The one exception I have is to this statement – “it’s the type of mistake that Obama doesn’t normally make.”

I beg to differ.  Actually, I think it is the type of mistake that Barack Obama often made.  

You know, Obama is the guy who once said, in 2008, “And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.” And who said, that same year, that he was going to "spread the wealth around" of people to “Joe the Plumber.” And who said, in 2012, “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”  

Let me stand even further athwart the conventional wisdom regarding President Obama. His recent statement is just another example that demonstrates that Barack Obama is, and always was, a very overrated politician.  

I have written below a list of characteristics that good candidates for political office are frequently thought to have. This list comes from my observations on American politics since the 1988 election, my extensive campaign experience since the early 90s, my long-time experience in the Hill, and my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Political Science (it's good that I can finally use the latter for something).

According to most knowledgeable political observers, a good political candidate is one who:

1. Wins most of his/her elections, including in competitive races.
2. Has a good appearance, voice, and charisma.
3. Is a good political strategist and has good political instincts.
4. Gives good speeches.
5. Is good on his feet.
6. Has a "moderate" record on the issues. Not too far to the left, and not too far to the right.
7. Avoids saying and doing politically foolish things.
8. Avoids associating with shady, radical, criminal and/or controversial characters.
9. Is energetic and hardworking, and is certainly not lazy.
10. Is a good fundraiser.
11. Is able to stick to his/her talking points.
12. Can be a pragmatist on some important issues. (A pragmatist is willing to make compromises, while a moderate tends to have moderate issue positions.)
13. Chooses competent people to run his/her campaign, and is willing to listen to them.
14. Is, at the very least, above average in intelligence. 
15. Is loyal to "them that brought you." 
16. Comes across as authentic.
17. Is likable to the non-political average person. You know, the “beer question.”

Now, let’s focus on President Obama and how he compares to this list: 

1. Obama won his two presidential campaigns, including a competitive primary in 2008 when he was the underdog. He won a U.S. Senate race in Illinois. And he won three state senate races. He only lost his attempt to move up to the U.S. Congress in 2000, against a longtime sitting Congressman. However, Obama’s record is more mixed than it would initially seem. He won his state senate seat and U.S. Senate seat largely by playing dirty pool against his opponents, and his 2008 presidential general election victory was easy – he won in a terrible year for the Republicans and against a bad candidate – that almost any Democrat could have done it. Nonetheless, I will officially give Obama the check for having this quality.  √

2. Obama certainly has a good appearance, voice, and charisma.  √

3. Obama never impressed me as a political strategist. One personal example, in 2007-2008, when Obama ran for president, he faced a major criticism – he was a talker and not a doer, and as a U.S. senator, he had accomplished virtually nothing concrete. To rectify this, Obama pushed bipartisan legislation called the MEJA Expansion and Enforcement Act of 2007. What the bill did was unimportant. However, instead of doing the smart thing and being willing to compromise with the Bush administration to get this bill passed into law, Obama’s team allowed Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy, a Democrat partisan if there ever was one, to “negotiate” it to death with the Bush administration. This “negotiation” was something I attended: endless meetings where the Leahy staff berated the White House negotiators, repeating the same allegations over and over again, and never attempted to actually compromise on something that might get passed. Which was not in Obama’s interest, since he wanted to brag about his passed law. ×

4. Obama gave one good speech, in 2004, which led to his presidential run in 2008. Other than that, I fail to remember anything positively memorable that he has ever said. But I am feeling generous, so I will give this to him.  √

5. Obama was not particularly good on his feet. He often said unfortunate things, including the above statements, and also including his promise: "If you like your health care plan, you can keep it," which became the lie of the year in 2013. It is not good for a politician to be caught in a lie. And here are some more ill-fated statements Obama made.  ×

6. Obama was a radical leftist who had a left-wing state senate record (including on abortion), but he got “lucky” (see above) in 2004. In 2008, his left-wing U.S. Senate record was overshadowed by the poor economy and the war in Iraq. And in 2012, his left-wing presidential record forced him to go negative against Romney (he’ll “put you all back in chains”) to win.  ×

7. Obama often said and did politically foolish things. See above.  ×

8. Obama often associated with controversial persons.  See racist and antisemite Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whom Obama sought religious guidance from and prayed with (unlike Oprah, who wisely moved to another church). See terrorist Bill Ayers. See convicted fraudster Tony Rezko. See racist and antisemite Louis Farrakhan. He also associated and assisted other corrupt individuals.  ×

9. Obama was considered rather lazy, even by himself. As was said of him in the passage of some legislation in the Illinois state senate that he was given credit for, “He was not the nuts-and-bolts guy. He got credit for it, but he did not put it together. This was a lot of hard work and negotiation between lawyers and law enforcement.” Indeed, much of what Obama supposedly accomplished in the state senate was actually accomplished by the Democrat leader who wanted Obama to be a U.S. Senator.  ×

10. Obama was certainly an excellent fundraiser.  √

11. Obama had a big problem sticking to his talking points (and avoiding sticking his foot in his mouth). See above.  ×

12. Obama may or may not have been a pragmatist. Left-wing sources felt he was. But I, and many conservatives, beg to differ.  =

13. Obama certainly chose competent people to advise him when he ran for public office. See, for example, David Axelrod, who got his opponents bounced in Obama’s race for the U.S. Senate.  √

14. Obama is intelligent, although, like almost all Democrat presidents (but not Biden), his intelligence is probably somewhat overestimated (JFK, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Obama were all portrayed as geniuses).  √

15. Obama was generally very loyal to his own people, who returned his loyalty.  √

16. Obama came across as a leftist who was trying to conceal his left-wing radicalism. See above. Making him inauthentic. That was also one of the reasons his frequent voting “present” in the state senate became an issue in his races.  ×

17. Obama was considered sort of a “cold fish” who would fail the beer question. And indeed, his beer summit with Henry Gates was reportedly somewhat uncomfortable.  ×

Since, in my view, Barack Obama has more negative qualities than positive ones, I don’t believe the conventional wisdom considering his qualities as a political candidate.  

Therefore, I think Obama was, and is, overrated as a politician. And his recent statement shows that, once again.