An "angry" Obama? Give me a break!!

Fareed Zakaria of CNN wrote an article today entitles: “Obama caves in to media frenzy over BP.” I absolutely agree with his expressed opinions89. There is no reason why, in the face of a huge crisis like this that the President should let down his guard and show emotion. He is succumbing to the public and media opinions which, ultimately, are going to effect his reelection in 2012. There is another article from today that talks about how public sentiment is sometimes viewed as more influential than the Presidential accomplishments over the first term. Obama’s list of successes can be as lengthy as the Constitution, but if the public has an overwhelmingly negative view of the President then votes simply will not generate favorably.

These issues also tie in with the stigma of an angry black man, which Obama is subject to all of the time. (A great article by John Blake of CNN, published June 9 has great insight on this). So there seems to be a paradox here. While the public is demanding more emotion and displays of anger, doing so increases the likelihood of accusations of an angry black man. This image would place Obama on the same level of Malcolm X, for example. Talk about the Debbie downer for the polls in 2012. Zakaria’s article notes that there have been more meetings on the Gulf disaster than on the Afghanistan crisis. I agree with him that this is insane. Redundant meetings for media clips make room for accusations from abroad that America is neglecting to address other, arguably more important, issues. We cannot afford to do this during the time of a world-wide economic crisis, Middle Eastern wars and conflict, trading relations, and everything else that the President has previously pushed on his agenda.

While I trust that Obama knows what he is doing, it is concerning to me that his demeanor toward recent public opinion is not reflective of the President I voted for two years ago. 2008 Obama is level headed, communicative, driven by common sense, and an effective representation of America that has improved international relationships and gained the trust of foreign leaders which we previously were denied in the past presidency. For what my opinion is worth, I believe that Obama needs to stop conceding to the emotional demands of a public who is not in any position to make Presidential decisions. To those who believe Obama needs to adopt a negative Nancy persona: STOP IT! Let him do his job effectively. Speak up and express your opinions on the issues, not on how the President of the United States should appear to the public.

Bottom line: he knows what he is doing. No matter your political affiliation, we need to investigate and critically analyze what our public officials are doing. I understand that we cannot put all of our faith in political leaders blindly. But focusing on the anger of Obama and any public official for that matter is a waste of time and deflects attention from the hard line issues. Grow up America—this isn’t a playground tiff.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/06/08/rage.obama/index.html?hpt=C2 (‘Angry Black Man’)
http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/06/10/zakaria.obama.media.frenzy/index.html (Zakaria article)
http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/06/14/zelizer.crisis.leadership/index.html (Julian Zelizer)