The President seems to frustrate his supporters at every turn.
- Rather than confront the military over its misadventures, he tries a Petreaus plan in Afghanistan.
- Rather than confront Wall Street over its failures he appoints bank regulators whose experience includes the season of crime.
- Rather than confront the Bush Torture Regime he seems to dither, refusing to endorse either a special prosecutor or a "truth commission," giving the former Vice President and the Republicans every opportunity to defend what they did in public.
This is just as true regarding The War Against Oil as anything else. "Mr. Obama’s “new” energy policy is more of the same old pandering," writes Bob Gordon of The Auto Channel. He doesn't call us to a war against oil. He just negotiates higher mileage standards.
Of course as frustrated as liberals are conservatives are, squared. They're mad as hell, but to them it feels like they're raging against the wind. He borrows trillions, literally trillions, he remakes the economy and all the rules, yet he remains enormously popular. It drives them crazy, and we can only pray the Secret Service can do its job.
But there is something else going on. It's something the media is only barely conscious of, so intent are they on triangulating him, on trying to pin him down.
This is not what the partisans on either side want. But it's not "moderation" either. It's realism, an understanding that on the 3-D chess match of life his is just one piece. You can't just plant your flag and hold your ground, as the last President did. You can't try to guess where both sides are and expect them to come to you, as the previous President did.
You stand for principles, but you listen to the opposition. You gauge what can move things forward and then, when it's there, you take it.
Notice who the President had with him today. Environmentalists, public officials, and the auto companies.
He disarmed Gov. Schwarzenegger by saying he would introduce governors in order of attractiveness, "sorry Arnie," and everyone started with a laugh. He stopped at the end to praise his Ford hybrid and then, knowing the other execs would be leaning in, said nice things about them, too. He ended on a laugh. He stopped to shake hands, letting his celebrity rub off on people and comfort them. Then he moved on.
What should this mean to those with a sense of urgency? It should mean we need more urgency. He moves as far as he can on each issue, without risking the popularity that makes movement possible, even palatable. Because he knows we need to keep moving.
We do, indeed, need to keep moving. Those of us who know the urgency of The War Against Oil need to become even-more energized, not less. This Administration has already placed opportunities before us. We need to seize them, not waste them, sweat every dollar of subsidy, see every day as precious. And we need to get back into the labs, finding new solutions to create, and grow, a hydrogen economy, a resilient grid that can buy as well as sell power, can store it, and can put the capacity to make electricity without carbon into the hands of everyone.
The "100 days" nonsense was based on the assumption that a President, once we're accustomed to him, becomes what he is, and gets lost in the noise. It's impossible, we think, for a President to stride across the stage every day, doing the same show, without the audience losing interest. We give each new Presidency a sense of urgency because we see its period of activism limited to a few months, a few weeks, a few days. We expect him to be taken down.
Some Presidents aren't taken down so easily. Ronald Reagan was just an actor, but he retained most of his popularity right through the end of his term, during which the country was transformed. All today's problems -- the social divide, our environmental and energy disasters, our faulty assumptions -- it all begins with Reagan. It makes him an important President, and Barack Obama has learned his lessons.
Never let them see you sweat. Relax and enjoy the ride. Take all you can get, but take only what you can get. Then move on.
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