Obama and Achilles

An Achilles’ heel is usually defined as a fatal weakness or gap in strength that can result in one's downfall.

As is their wont, the pundits are probing for the chink in Obama’s political armor.

Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson disappointingly joins the parlor game in his latest column. Where is the president’s “mojo,” he wonders woefully.

Reacting to the Obama interview on “60 Minutes” last Sunday, Robinson opined that “Obama was reasonable, analytical, professorial.” (When the adjective “professorial” appears, you know a frying pan is about to be swung.) But, Robison added, Obama was “also uninspired and uninspiring.”(See?)

Robinson elaborates:

“By uninspired, I mean there was no sense that Obama relishes the high-stakes political battles that are sure to come over the next two years. There was no hint, for example, that he looks forward to the opportunity to put Republicans on the spot about all the unrealistic budget-cutting they say they want to carry out. And by uninspiring, I mean that the president offered no vision of a brighter tomorrow. Instead, he sketched a future not quite as dim as the present.”

When the president was asked, "Do you get discouraged? Are you discouraged now?" Obama replied, "I do get discouraged. I thought that the economy would have gotten better by now.”

But apparently being human or reasonable isn’t good enough for Robinson. “Well, it may be unfair, but presidents aren't allowed to be discouraged. They aren't allowed to talk about the limitations of the job, or the fact that they are held accountable for everything from inclement weather to the lack of a championship playoff system in college football,” the columnist huffs.

Really, Eugene?

We’ve seen this movie so many times before. Obama’s mojo apparently went MIA after a listless debate performance during the 2008 campaign. Stick a fork in him, the pundits said, he’s done. It went missing again during the Jeremiah Wright (“God damn America!”) brouhaha. Game over, the pundits declared, all hail Hillary. Then again after all was thought lost in the smackdown over healthcare. Game-Set-Match, the pundits divined in their obits of the Obama presidency. And so on.

Today, after a smart, serious, “reasonable” interview, Robinson (and others) handwrings over why Obama won’t dash to a phone booth, rip off his suit and reveal his Superman garb. Am I the only one not suffering from A.D.D.? Am I the only one not Waiting for Superman? Sure feels like it sometimes.

I do not believe Mr. Obama has an Achilles’ heel. But if the president has a weakness, a gap in his political Star Trek Shields, if you like – it is his reluctance to playact when the nation requires a hug from daddy.

Obama is a serious adult. But he needs to understand that much of the time he is the only one. That, sadly, is reality. Obama would find that he could easily placate the electorate’s childish behavior (along with the sophomoric punditry) if he went all dopey Ronald Reagan on us when the times demand it.

Mr. Obama would also find to his delight that much of this silly feel-your-pain talk would go away, freeing him to focus on the serious business of saving the world like the grown-up he is.

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AN ASIDE: They didn’t award Eugene Robinson a Pulitzer Prize for nuthin’. In his Obama column, he also wrote this: “The newly elected Tea Party Republicans have a clear agenda: full speed astern, all the way to 1789. If nobody else wants to steer the boat, the people full of passion and ideas will be happy to fight over the wheel. Icebergs be damned.” Ahh. There’s nothing like witty prose written well.