Obama, Where Art Thou?

Barack Obama’s 2008 stump speech was an ever-evolving piece of art. He went from small backyard gatherings to massive, sold-out baseball stadiums full of hysterical fans. These Obama devotees, this writer included, saw the rallies as a chance to not only see a man who was trying to get a job on Pennsylvania Avenue but who was one of the leading orators of our time. While the message of each speech was more or less the same, only taking out or putting in sections here or there depending on the venue, Candidate Obama saw the value in Aaron Sorkin’s Sam Seborn’s remarks that “Oratory should raise your heart rate. Oratory should blow the doors off the place. We should be talking about not being satisfied with past solutions; we should be talking about a permanent revolution.” More than Get Out The Vote drives or smart television advertisements or email blasts Obama’s public statements in 2008 had the power to capture the imagination of the American people and turn it into a catalyst for action, resulting in one of the largest grassroots efforts known to mankind.

So all of this leads up to the question: Obama, where did you go?

Where is the leader of a movement that promised an end to Bush-era fear? Don‘t get me wrong, I am still an avid supporter of the President, but what happened to his once infallible ability to motivate the masses with just a few words? If you look at Barack Obama‘s concession speech following his defeat in New Hampshire by Hilary Clinton in January of 2008 you see not the words of a man pandering for the Presidency, but those of a man who wants to see real, tangible social change in our country. Obama said that:

“But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope. For when we have faced down impossible odds; when we’ve been told that we’re not ready, or that we shouldn’t try, or that we can’t, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people. Yes we can…It was the call of workers who organized; women who reached for the ballot; a President who chose the moon as our new frontier; and a King who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the Promised Land.”

While the issue of “vagueness” admittedly arises in his 2008 speech, his intention was not to drill the American people on macroeconomic policy; that was for later when he actually had the power to act. No, the purpose of his stump speeches was and should be to inspire; to move people to the realization that our political institutions are bigger than ourselves; to get people involved in a movement they otherwise might write off as just politics.

But in the current election cycle the Obama speechwriting team, perhaps taking a cue from the GSA, has decided to take a costly holiday to the land of monotony. This phenomenon has two popularly discussed causes: either being the President of the United States has put Obama in a different rhetorical place, or he has moved to the political center and as such is straying away from dialogue that could be categorized as “partisan”.

To be frank both of these charges are, in the words of Uncle Joe Biden, “malarkey”, but deserve contemplation nevertheless.

When Candidate Obama went up to the podium, people saw him as Barack the Community Organizer or Barack the first successful African American candidate for President or Barack the anti-Bush. In these roles he inherently had an aura of positive revolution, of fighting against the man, of bringing new ideas to the table.

Now when he comes to the podium people see him as the President of the United States, the leader of the free world and as such he is supposed to represent stability, law & order, and “Presidentialness”, whatever the hell that is. So our perceptions are different and the President unfortunately falls into the trap of expectations. What Mr. Obama needs to realize is that, especially in an election year, he simply can’t give up the vigor that made him so successful in 2008. While in many cases the President has the responsibility to act “above partisan politics” as George Washington once did he also has the responsibility to stand up and fight. Being “Presidential” doesn’t have to mean you lie down while your political enemies kick the crap out of you, just to show you’re “above” them. Being President means that the majority (or at least usually the majority) of the American people trust your judgment and it’s okay to fight from your side, in this case from the left. But as of late the President’s speeches refuse to acknowledge this and instead focus on being in the safe, docile political center.

To this I say: Mr. President, get back in the ring and fight.

Now the second charge, that of moving to the center. There is some confusion about what people mean when they say the President has moved to the center and I want to clarify. There is the normal definition of the term where the policies the President seeks are more moderate than his positions in the election. Here the base of the President’s party argues that he has strayed from “the path”.

But then there is the definition that fits the President; that he seeks the same policies he fought for in the election, but has had to compromise with extremists to get anything done.

So while his oratorical skills may have been pushed towards the center and he has focused on bland, colorless speeches, President Barack Obama has far from abandoned his core beliefs of equality of opportunity and the ability of Government to be an institution of good. Upon assuming office the President signed the Lilly Ledbeter Act, maintaining equal pay for women in the workplace. He passed the most comprehensive healthcare reform bill in US history, the Affordable Care Act, providing millions with affordable health insurance. He ended institutionalized homosexual discrimination in the military, allowing those who love their country to love whomever they so choose and he ended the reign of terror of Osama Bin Laden: all of this was done in a political climate where the opposition’s main goal was to outright deny the President a second term and not to form a more perfect union. These accomplishments, among many others, more than validate the President as a champion of the American spirit. The question he must answer himself is: why am I running away?

Mr. President, you have a record that has helped millions around the globe. You can be both Barack the Community Organizer and Barack the President; in fact that is exactly what our country needs. So find a mic, and start talking about it.