海角大神

With the news filled with headlines of international chaos in Ukraine, Gaza, Iraq, Libya, and Syria 鈥� just to name five聽world hot spots 鈥� and domestic politics being riled by everything from immigration and a border crisis to ongoing budget disputes, President Obama is once again coming under criticism for聽seeming to ignore what鈥檚 going on around him. Much of this criticism, to be fair, is partisan in nature and not all that different from what we鈥檝e heard from Republicans for the past five years. At the same time, though, the president is finding himself coming under criticism by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle for seemingly聽聽and polls continue to show that聽, something that we have聽

Peggy Noonan echoed that theme in聽

Barack Obama doesn鈥檛 seem to care about his unpopularity, or the decisions he鈥檚 made that have not turned out well. He doesn鈥檛 seem concerned. A guess at the reason: He thinks he is right about his essential policies. He is steering the world toward not relying on America. He is steering America toward greater dependence on and allegiance to government. He is creating a more federally controlled, Washington-centric nation that is run and organized by progressives. He thinks he鈥檚 done his work, set America on a leftward course, and though his poll numbers are down now, history will look back on him and see him as heroic, realistic, using his phone and pen each day in spite of unprecedented resistance. He is Lincoln, scorned in his time but loved by history.

He thinks he is in line with the arc of history, that America, for all its stops and starts, for all the recent Supreme Court rulings, has embarked in the long term on governmental and cultural progressivism. Thus in time history will have the wisdom to look back and see him for what he really was: the great one who took every sling and arrow, who endured rising unpopularity, the first black president and the only one made to suffer like this.

That鈥檚 what he鈥檚 doing by running out the clock: He鈥檚 waiting for history to get its act together and see his true size.

He鈥檚 like someone who鈥檚 constantly running the movie 鈥淟incoln鈥� in his head. It made a great impression on him, that movie. He told Time magazine, and Mr. Remnick, how much it struck him. President Lincoln of course had been badly abused in his time. Now his greatness is universally acknowledged. But if Mr. Obama read more of Lincoln, he might notice Lincoln鈥檚 modesty, his plain ways, his willingness every day to work and negotiate with all who opposed him, from radical abolitionists who thought him too slow to supporters of a negotiated peace who thought him too martial. Lincoln showed respect for others. Those who loved him and worked for him thought he showed too much. He was witty and comical but not frivolous and never shallow. He didn鈥檛 say, 鈥淪o sue me.鈥� He never gave up trying to reach agreement and resolution.

This weekend at聽The Telegraph, Matt K. Lewis raises a very similar argument, wondering if聽

Candidates for president who brazenly assume they are the inevitable victor are sometimes accused of 鈥渕easuring the drapes鈥� for the White House.

Obama, conversely, seems to be prematurely packing his bags in hopes for an early departure.

Just last week, for example, the Los Angeles Times reported that 鈥淭he First Family is believed to be in escrow on a contemporary home in a gated community where entertainers Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby once maintained estates鈥�.

The fact that the press would find relevance in speculating on Obama鈥檚 post-White House residence 鈥� and identify California as the kind of scene the future ex-president would want to hang out in when he leaves office 鈥� is perhaps telling.

And, indeed, this comes on the heels of multiple reports from outlets such as The New York Times and Politico, detailing how Obama has increasingly been spending his time at trendy restaurants and fancy, late-night dinner parties with celebrities and various intellectuals.

Rubbing elbows with the rich and elite is fine enough. Unfortunately, the work suffers. The degree to which he is now phoning it in 鈥� sleepwalking perfunctorily through his second term 鈥� is astonishing.

And based on his recent handling of situations much more serious than a possible post-presidential move to sunny California, it seems as if 鈥淣o Drama Obama鈥� is no longer even worried about keeping up appearances; he doesn鈥檛 care enough to fake it.

Consider this: In recent days, a) Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down, apparently by Russian separatists in Ukraine, b) In the Gaza strip, the numbers killed continued to mount as Israelis and Palestinians exchange rocket fire, c) a huge influx of children fleeing Central American poverty and gang warfare swamped America鈥檚 southern border, creating a humanitarian crisis. And, oh yeah, d) 海角大神s living in Mosul were given the choice to either convert to Islam or flee the area they have inhabited for nearly two thousand years.

You know what else has happened during this time? a) Obama played many rounds of golf, b) he attended numerous fund-raisers, c) he dined on barbecue in Texas and burgers in Delaware, and d) he almost appeared on the comedian Jimmy Kimmel鈥檚 late-night television show in Hollywood.

I say 鈥渁lmost鈥� because the White House finally relented. 鈥淲e ultimately elected not to have the president do that interview over the course of this trip,鈥� the White House press secretary, Josh Earnest, conceded. 鈥淎nd that is at least in part related to the challenges of doing a comedy show in the midst of some of these other more serious matters that the president鈥檚 dealing with in the international scene.鈥�

As a general rule, I think that the criticisms that have been leveled against President Obama regarding things like how he spends his leisure time are聽unfair. As both and I others here at OTB have noted before, the criticisms of things such as how many times the president has golfed over the past five years (see , and for commentary on that topic) or the fact that he has spent 听辞谤听 are silly.聽First of all, the president is never really 鈥渙n a break鈥� whether he鈥檚 on the golf course at Andrews Air Force Base or vacationing. Everywhere he goes he is, of course, accompanied not only by a phalanx of security, but also but numerous aides, the ability to be contacted by the White House at any given moment, and, of course, the guy with the nuclear football, not to mention a press contingent. Secondly, he idea that he鈥檚 actually skipping out on work that he needs to do on any of these occasions is utterly absurd both for these reasons, and because of the simple fact that, as president his job largely involves receiving information and giving instructions to others based on that information. The president doesn鈥檛 go out on his own and implement the policy he sets, he doesn鈥檛 personally lead the military actions or intelligence operations that he authorizes, and the doesn鈥檛 build the roads that the transportation bill he signed funds. When people start complaining about the fact that the president is away from the White House, whether he鈥檚 golfing, or on vacation, or fundraising, then, they鈥檙e are displaying something of a misunderstanding of what the presidency is all about and what a president does or realistically can do. A president who shuts himself or herself inside the White House every time there is some domestic or international crisis isn鈥檛 really going to accomplish much of anything, except perhaps create the perception that a given situation is more serious than it actually is.

All that being said, it does seem quite apparent that President Obama is at least creating the perception that he is disengaged from the problems of the nation and the world, and I鈥檇 suggest that this is at least in part related to issues about his leadership abilities that go back to the beginning of his presidency. Perhaps due in no small part to the fact that he came into office with no executive experience and a political r茅sum茅 that essentially involved being a backbench Democrat in the Illinois Legislature and a senator in Washington. That r茅sum茅 does not appear to have served him well when it comes to dealing with Congress, even when it was controlled by his own party, or working on the international stage. In the case of these particular crises and the state that the world finds itself in today, Obama seems to be creating the impression that he has disengaged. Even if it isn鈥檛 true, and I suspect that it isn鈥檛, this isn鈥檛 a smart impression to be leaving either with the general public or the world as a whole. On some level at least, the American people need to believe that the president is on top of what is happening in the world and taking the actions necessary to protect American interests. As the polling indicates, both l and on specific issues such as the聽听补苍诲听聽the public has generally lost confidence in the president as a leader, and that鈥檚 not good either for the president or the country.

At this point, I鈥檓 not certain what I鈥檇 suggest the president do to turn this around, assuming that鈥檚 even possible. There鈥檚 no rational reason for him to stop golfing on the weekends or cancel vacation plans. Perhaps toning down the fundraising would be in order, especially when it becomes so conspicuous that even the press is talking about it, and about the fact that they are consistently barred from reporting on what the president says at these events. Indeed, on some level, the issue here isn鈥檛 so much about the president doing something so much as it is about him being a leader, which is as much a matter of appearance as it is one of substance. For the most part the public impressions about the president鈥檚 leadership abilities are set in stone thanks to the events of the past five years. Some of the perception that has set in is due, no doubt, to the incessant criticisms from Republicans in Congress, but in the end the president has nobody to blame for the situation he finds himself in but himself.

Doug Mataconis appears on the Outside the Beltway blog at .