Obama--Timeless and Clueless

In boxing, comedy and on Wall Street, timing is everything. Whatever else Barack Obama has shown us this past year, it hasn’t been timing. As a political fighter, he’s been flat-footed, several moments behind and unbelievably clumsy.
Timing he ain’t got. If you’re going to ring in change—of any kind—you’ve got to stay conscious at least to the end of the round. Right now he doesn’t look like he’s going to go that far. Tell the trainers to get ready to carry him out of the ring.
LAST YEAR was the year to get Health Care Reform through Congress. His presidency was young; he had all the “cred” of a major election victory. He diddled. He fuddled. He backed off and let Congress do its thing—while he went off and fought windmills in Copenhagen and made a thoroughly aborted try to get the Olympics to Chicago.
Oh yes, he had to take time to prepare a speech reaching out to Muslims in Cairo and accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. All the while Health Care was left an orphan to slowly starve to death for lack of action and votes in Congress.
Finally, today, Nancy Pelosi admitted that she hasn’t got the votes to put all the things the Senate wants through her House of Representatives. (She only got the House version passed by about five votes—and now the Senate has lost its filibuster proof 60 Democratic votes—and how long will Byrd be able to make it to the floor?) She suggested putting the bill on indefinite hold.
If health care isn’t dead, it’s gasping for breath. You can imagine all the Congressional pages and aides dashing about as the cry, “Code Blue, Code Blue” echoes through the halls. Obama has probably killed it the same way Clinton did in 1973/4.
Both Clinton and Obama allowed the bill to sit while the opposition gathered its strength for a lethal counterattack. (Remember ANY form of health care reform is going to cost some well healed persons and organizations MONEY. They won’t like it.)
(Note for future presidents who may want to improve American health care: 1)Make it SIMPLE. 2) Use your early days clout to force Congress to keep it simple. 3) Get it on the Congressional calendar NO LATER than February. 4) Pull out all the stops to get a fast vote.
These won’t absolutely guarantee passage—but the lack of any one of them will surely guarantee that it will NOT pass. Obama managed to score zero out of four—as did the Clintons. Those who stood to lose money if it became law massed their forces, lied and won.
Now it seems to have dawned on Obama that while he was busy making war and foreign policy speeches, he has apparently missed the boat on another domestic issue. Just now, today, the same day Nancy Pelosi called off the hounds, Obama recollected that Americans are very unhappy about the big firms on Wall Street that 1)nearly collapsed the financial system and 2)are collecting huge bonuses for doing it.
Oh oops. Maybe we should create new regulatory measures to reign in big banks and prevent them from getting “too big to fail.” This could have been a winner LAST winter. Now things seem to be bouncing back and the urgency is completely gone.
Obama can try to hide the fact he’s about to take a licking on health care by making angry noises about Wall Street, but it isn’t likely to accomplish anything. Not any more. Timing, baby, timing. The last time he showed any was on inaugural night when he danced with Michelle.
He has tripped over his instinct to delay, ignore and create complications. He was content to follow the Bush program on Wall Street until it simply won’t fly any more. Now it is doubtful if he can make any program of his own fly at all.
Timing matters in the boxing ring, comedy central and investing—it also matters in the political arena.