Waiting for Obama's Godot

Art, beauty and political speech is in the eye of the beholder. If you sit ten people down and have them listen to a presidential address together, what do you get?

Unless he's mouthing words on the level of "My Pet Goat," you'll get 10 interpretations of said address. Clearly, Andrew Sullivan and I heard two different speeches tonight. But his reaction to President Obama's address on Libya set my hair on fire.

Behold:

"Was I persuaded? Not completely. The major objection - what happens now? - was not answered affirmatively by the president."

But Sully, please tell me how Obama could possibly answer that question, you know, "affirmatively." Read my lips: Obama does not know. No one does. Barack Obama is neither a soothsayer nor a savant. He's just the president.

"It wasn't Obama's finest oratory; but it was a very careful threading of a very small needle. That requires steady hands and calmer nerves than I possess."

It wasn't his "finest oratory?" As opposed to ... what? More to the point, why is Obama expected to deliver a Kennedyesque "pay any price, bear any burden" speech every time he bounds to the podium? Please. And why am I getting a whiff of subtle condescension?

"But this president emerges once again as a consolidator and adjuster of the past, not a revolutionary force for the future."

A revolutionary? Says who? I had no idea I was backing "Che" Guevara Obama in 2008. Again, we're back to Obama as the Messiah figure.

Look, my intent here is not to slam or pick on Sullivan. ("Sonny, it's not personal, it's just business.") The hedge rows are thick with similarly opinionated fowl. Consider, for example, National Journal editor Ron Fourier. On Twitter after the speech, he snippily demanded: "How many lives might be lost" in Libya? (OK, Ron, how do you want those KIA estimates - in PowerPoint or will a spreadsheet do?)

But Sully's comments are classically emblematic of those with wholly unrealistic expectations of Obama. So when Obama inevitably doesn't deliver (because he can't) or emote enough (because he won't), they lunge into dark convulsions. The Believers want so desperately for him to be Jesus of Nazareth in a Savile Row suit. They keep hoping that, this time, Obama will finally rush to a phone booth, change into his Superman garb -- and change the world in a single bound. It is as fruitless as waiting for Beckett's Godot. I believe we are extraordinarily lucky to have someone of Obama's intellect, integrity and caliber as president -- just as he is. Any fool not blinded by partisan politics can see that. Even Republicans.