Robert L. Terrell

I recall asserting during an early phase of Barack Obama’s run for the presidency of the United States that he is somewhat flaky. This doesn’t mean he is a bad or incompetent person. To the contrary, he is apparently one of the most personally principled presidents in living memory. He is also bright, and unusually intelligent. His many enemies concede these two points.

So character, competence and intelligence are not primary sources of his most important shortcomings. But being flaky is one of his important shortcomings, and this constitutes a significant dilemma for all of us. Let me elaborate.

I say Obama is flaky because in some important ways he doesn’t get the disconnect between rhetoric and reality. This was readily apparent when he went to Oslo to accept the Nobel Peace prize, and told his incredulous audience at the awards ceremony that the patently colonial assault he is waging in Afghanistan is a so-called “just war.”

Somehow this brilliant man was either unwilling, or incapable, of acknowledging that the atavistic, cancerous affair in Afghanistan might reasonably be called many things, but “just war” is not one of them. Asserting that is it is flaky.

One might also note that Obama’s response to the fracas currently unfolding with escalating hostility in New York City regarding the proposed Muslim cultural center and mosque is also flaky. That’s what Maureen Dowd of the New York Times was getting at recently when she recently nailed him in one of her columns.

“Obama presents himself as a paragon of high principle.” noted Dowd. “ So when he flops around on things like “don’t ask, don’t tell” or shrinks back from one of his deepest beliefs about the freedom of religion anywhere and everywhere in America, it’s not pretty. “Even worse, this is the man who staked his historical reputation on a new and friendlier engagement with the Muslim world. The man who extended his hand to Tehran has withdrawn his hand from Park Place. Paranoid about looking weak, Obama allowed himself to be weakened by perfectly predictable Republican hysteria.”

Maureen Dowd was correct.

Moreover, there is little indication that Obama is going to change because his flaky behavior is a function his personality. My most important fear where all this is concerned is that Obama will continue to dither when faced with major dilemmas that require clear vision, and the capacity to pursue a relatively precise objective.

If he develops the capacity to function in such a manner, he will hopefully clarify the mishmash of wishful thinking, which characterizes his current policies regarding supremely important matters that will ultimately determine the success or failure of his presidency.

They include, but are certainly not limited to, the roll of the United States regarding the poisonous conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, the still dangerous military stalemate in Iraq, the Afghan-Pakistan-Kashmir-Indian quagmire, Iran’s expanding nuclear program, and North Korea’s pugnacious porcupine defense strategy.

My best sense is that we are going to have to help Obama with this stuff because his flaky approach to critical, divisive matters such as these is inadequate. I assume he is doing his best, but we need more. And we don’t have luxury of waiting several years for him to get his head together, and begin providing the sort of mature, balanced and daring leadership people were yearning for when they elected him president.