Obama’s Exhaustion

~ Laura

I fell asleep in the middle of Obama's speech last night. I was tired from mornings of mom work and evenings of wonkery, it's true, but he is also to blame. I skimmed my twitterfeed this morning and there was deafening silence about last night. Obama bombed. But why? 

Obama knows how to give good speech. He clearly enjoyed the commencement speeches of June. Last night, he was grim. He pieced together bits of speeches that he has given for the past year and failed to inspire us. He couldn't promise hope. Not truthfully at any rate. He could only promise a slow, painful recovery. He didn't like his own message. 

The presidency weighs heavily on his shoulders. Part of him wonders if life would not be better, if he was a law professor in Chicago with the time to coach his girls' soccer games. Being average and unknown and free from the silliness of Washington politics. 

There were some stand out speeches this week. Michelle and Clinton were marvelous. Even John Kerry dazzled. It's much easier to give a rousing speech for someone else, than to brag about one's own accomplishments. 

Some pundits are speculating that Obama knows that he is going to win in November and is merely going through the motions right now. There's no need to inspire, when the win is in the bag. I don't think that arrogance slowed down Obama, as much as the burden of economy and boredom of campaign. 

There's something Shakespearean about watching a president enter his second term. He now knows that forces beyond his control shape our country. No one can control the shifting economy or move the massive bureaucracy or tame the insane leaders abroad or appease all the groups that show up at his door. He's chewed up by responsibility. Devoured and martyred for the country that wants more than he can give. Counting the days until he can walk away from it all. Only Bill Clinton loved that life. Normal people want a real life. 

Published by Laura

18 thoughts on “Obama’s Exhaustion”

  1. I think bombed is pretty harsh. Was it his most passionate speech? No. Did he deliver as well as Bubba the night before? No. But he was far from bombing.
    I thought the line “you did that” versus the whole Romney “I built that” was a pretty good line. The speech was even and well reasoned, even if it was light on the details. As someone said last night, I’ll take Obama’s saying nothing over Romney’s saying nothing any day.
    It gave me a thrill to hear gay rights spoken about from a president- and more importantly from a candidate.
    And the MSNBC folk were happily recounting their favorite points afterward, so not everyone thought it was a wash.

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  2. Yeah, I don’t agree it was a bomb. It was hard to follow up on Michelle and Bill. He did what he had to, mostly.

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  3. I thought it was pretty inspiring to be honest.(as did a friend of mine who donated money immediately after Obama’s speech because she finally is “on board”) Not as amazing as Clinton’s the night before and not as warm and engaging as Michelle’s either. I agree that Obama probably has very mixed emotions about the presidency and being in the limelight. But I didn’t think he bombed. I think he just didn’t measure up to some amazing speeches that came before him.

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  4. Definitely not a bomb in my living room. It didn’t hold a candle to his 2004 speech, after which I was ready to follow him anywhere. And not as good as 2008 either. But we are all more battered than we were then. An attempt to be as inspiring as he was in 2004 would have sounded false given the current realities. I thought he struck a balance between hopefullness and realism.

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  7. I was going to watch Obama’s speech but it was some time after ten, he still hadn’t shown up and Eldest needed help identifying a French book to use for her book report so I bailed.
    Sorry, Mr. President!

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  8. It was interesting that when he began a sentence with something like “The last time I spoke at this convention I was a candidate,” the crowd roared, expecting some sort of “Yay, but now I’m president!” – when actually it was to introduce the fact that he had now had the experience of sending troops into battle and talking to soldiers’ family members after their loved ones had died.

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  9. “..Devoured and martyred for the country that wants more than he can give. Counting the days until he can walk away from it all. Only Bill Clinton loved that life. Normal people want a real life…”
    I don’t buy this. He is working very hard to hold on and get reelected. Slashing at Romney, making it out to be a great struggle between himself as good and Romney as evil. He is not looking to get away from it. If he did, he should have not sought renomination.

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  10. The truth of the matter, is that Bill is a master speaker and post-presidency, he has the freedom to say whatever the heck he wants.
    I thought Obama did well. But I think his approach in speaking has gone from being an idealist to being a pragmatist, which is a healthy shift in perspective when the country’s had a rough four years.

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  11. I heard an interesting theory on NPR tonight – that Obama’s sort of minor-key approach to the speech last night reflected his sense that today’s job numbers would be lousy. I have no idea if that’s the case, but it seems plausible.

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  12. Nothing to add but to say that you are on fire with your writing here. Your articles have always been wonderful but your blog posts are at another level. You really have the different style requirements down. You are an enjoyable and thought-provoking daily read!

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  18. I kind of love Joe Biden. It seems like VP’s are always like your odd uncle or brother-in-law. I’ll take Joe’s brand of gaffe-ridden sentimental crazy over Uncle Dick’s “please don’t leave me alone with him, he scares me” any day of the week.

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