His biggest flaw is that he’s a consummate politician, in that he’ll do or say anything to gain (or keep) the Presidency. Of course, this is the “flaw” that got him elected.
An example of this is his opposition to same-sex marriage. A lot of people suspect that he’s actually in favor of it, but obviously if he took that side it might be politically damaging. Yet he knows that he’s got huge GLBT support. So it’s a double-edged sword.
Another possible flaw remains to be seen: how he deals with any kind of failure.
I don’t know about that. Throwing Reverend Wright under the bus would probably have been seen to be a better move, but in retrospect, his speech about race in America is perhaps one of his finest ever. I don’t think he just says whatever will get him the most votes; acknowledging Wright’s influence on him was very risky.
That isn’t a secret, as he’s admitted to bumming a smoke at times during the campaign. Regardless of politics one hopes that this transition period lets him quit without any caveats.
I’m on my way out to dinner, so I don’t have time to copy and paste quotes. But read the links yourself – they’ll give you insight as to how Obama handles “compromise” and “resistance inside his own party”.
If you really came away from this campaign believing that Barack Obama is a capitulator, then you haven’t done your due diligence to learn about the man who will become your President on January 20th.
As for answering the OP, I think what will be perceived as his biggest flaw will be that he won’t tow the Liberal Line and steamroll the Democrats’ agenda through Congress. There will be a lot on the Left who will be angry about this, and may judge his presidency harshly because of it.
Obama’s choice of Rahm Emanuel, his win over Alice Palmer years ago, and many of the details in the beginning of Newsweek’s big campaign piece also argue against the idea of Obama as a wimp.
That man’s mouth gonna get him in trouble. His well-polished and thoughtful public speaking persona doesn’t reveal how brutally sharp and dismissive he can be if he wants to. At some point, he’ll get impatient with someone being willfully obtuse or obstructionist, and he’ll mutter something under his breath with a nasty edge, and won’t realize till too late that the mike was on.
And a lot of the public will temporarily stop seeing him as “brown Ward Cleaver” and suddenly view him as “scary black guy”. It will be blown out of proportion, sure, but it will take him a while to live it down anyway.
Moral: Even smart guys should resist the temptation to be smart asses.
Kimstu, I think if he does that while we’re still basking in the afterglow, it’ll be viewed (and appreciated) as “Finally! Straight talk from a politician! About damn time!” Like the “fucking light bulbs” thing from the Newsweek article. And like Joe Biden asking that Fox reporter if she was serious when she asked a particularly stupid question. That was so refreshing.
He’ll have to be careful not to be condescending when he’s talking to idiots. I saw a little bit of that in him.
Speaking of idiots, in Iowa we voted to amend the State Constitution to substitute “mentally incompetent” for “idiot”, in the clause that prevents people who are mentally incompetent (formerly known as idiots) from voting. There’s a funny piece about it here.
His biggest flaw is that when thinking about a societal problem, he first thinks “what can the government do to help” instead of “is this something the government should be involved in helping.”
Oh, that guy! Yeah, that guy sucks. He’s going to take away my paycheck and my rights and make children study the Koran in school. It’s true, I read it in an Internet banner ad.
By the way, in the intervals of a 48-straight-hour stint in the office hopped up on caffeine, I have compiled the following lexicon for handy reference when translating Freeperese and the like. You may find it useful for identifying Obama’s flaws.
The Anti-Obama Dictionary
Arab, 1. n. A Kenyan-American with no Arab heritage and no knowledge of Arabic who does not set foot in the Middle East until he’s over 40. 2. adj. Not decent.
Inexperienced, adj. Never having served as Governor of Alaska.
Marxist, n. A moderate follower of the Chicago School of capitalist economics who favors a slight increase in the progressivity of the federal income tax.
Muslim, n. A baptized, churchgoing Christian who has lived in a Muslim country. Other prominent Muslims in history include St. Albert, Richard the Lionhearted, and Napoleon.
Terrorist, n. A law-abiding opponent of terror tactics who has ever had any acquaintance with anyone who ever used or advocated any form of illegal violence at any point in the past.
Feel free to contribute your own entries!
In my limited observation, he does not respond well to sharp questioning. Modern presidents have to put up with loaded, leading, disrespectful, biased, stupid and aggressive questions from the media; it’s part of the gig. The media love Obama now, but they love themselves more, and at some point are going to start being adversarial. He’ll need to deal with that.
IMO, it was not a good first step to snub Fox news at his first press conference. Like them or not, they’re the highest-rated news network, and they have the right to ask him questions.
The fact that he is far, far more interested in doing things to spread the wealth around than he is in doing things to create wealth in the first place.
This is so ironic, given that “creating wealth in the first place” is exactly what he meant when he said he’d like to see the wealth spread around more in this country.
Perhaps if you actually paid attention and read/listened in context you’d be better informed and less concerned about boogeymen that don’t exist.
