President Obama’s attitude

“I would rather see him [President Barack Obama] a one-term president than have him pass on another unwinnable war to the person who will follow him to office.”

So states Gary Wills in the recent issue of The New York Review of Books. Wills, always a perceptive commentator, is an admirer of President Obama, as I am. Neither of us wants the Obama presidency to be a one-termer. But his idea is that we “have a president with the moral and rhetorical force to talk us out of a foolish commitment that cannot be sustained without shame and defeat.” Wills asks, “If it costs him the presidency, what other achievement can match it?” Of course, that last question is rhetorical. There could well be other great achievements from this uniquely promising president. But there won’t be any achievements — getting out of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, filling the needy federal judiciary with good judges, getting healthcare reform, dealing with the economy, “et cetera and et cetera” (as Yul Brenner, the King, intoned), unless President Obama goes “all-in,” to use a poker term, with all his power and prestige. That means standing up to the military, along with pushing Congress and using the media to press is positions.

Professor Wills reminds us that President Obama said in his presidential campaign that he’d be a one-term president if doing so accomplished his goals. He had less to lose then, as a long-shot candidate. But one reason he won his election against great odds is that he promised to change the way things traditionally were done in Washington politics (and get us out of Iraq). It was his attitude that he will move against the special interests in and out of government in order to do the right things that got him elected. That is also the same attitude that will get him reelected. But more important to the country, it is the politically reckless attitude that will also get things accomplished when he is president.

Paradoxically, if the president does the politically difficult, right, things, regardless of whether they appear to hurt his reelection chances, he may have a better chance to be reelected. At least if he is not reelected, he will have done the right things. That’s what the country elected this smart and challenging man to do. The paradox, the conundrum, the most moral political attitude, is the one that motivates a politician to do the unpopular, politically risky things that his country needs. One term or two, the president needs to get us out of these wars. If he shows the power to do so, other good things will follow. Including a second term.

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