Is Hiding a Virtue?

Over the last few years and particularly since the beginning of 2011, President Obama has refrained from getting deeply involved in many of the important issues facing the USA. Obama has made some comments about the level of spending for the current year, but he has had little to say about the ongoing negotiations to fix those expenditures. He has had much to say (although somewhat late) with regard to Libya, but he has made sure to keep the USA from any sort of leadership role in the international response to the uprising in that country. Obama has talked about energy security for the USA but has done nothing to move towards that goal. The list goes on and needs not be repeated here.

Many in Washington in both parties are critical of Obama's hiding from involvement in these issues. Things have gotten to the point where even the main stream media is writing about Obama's refusal to engage. Of course, the main stream media paints this as a virtue. Here is a little excerpt from an AP article out today.

"But the White House sees no upside in outspokenness.

"There is a very strong gravitational pull in this town to try to drag the president to every single political skirmish and news story," said White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer.

Pfeiffer said Obama has enough issues on his agenda and said the White House doesn't believe the public wants the president weighing in on an array of subjects.

"They want him leading the country; they don't want him serving as a cable commentator for the issue of the day," he said."

So spending levels and the federal budget is too much to put on Obama's agenda? What is he busy doing? The spending fight is the central dispute in Washington at the moment. If the country wants leadership from the pesident, doesn't it stand to reason that the country wants leadership on the most important things out there?

The truth is that Obama is back to his old habit of voting present on contentious issues. He wants spending levels to continue at the current inflated levels, but he knows that the country voted against this. Rather than take a position, Obama is hoping that drift and gridlock will keep spending levels high without indicating that he had anything to do with it. The one thing that we all know, however, is this: no matter how things proceed from here, Obama has shown a remarkable lack of leadership. He does not deserve to be re-elected.