Barack Obama, the Nation’s “Daddy”

Americans tend to study their presidents passionately. They assign them a number (Obama is the 44th), scrutinize them under a microscope and classify them from best to worst. (General opinion is that James Buchanan, Lincoln’s predecessor, was the worst. He also happens to have been the only unwed president.) It is true that America invented the position, so to speak. Before George Washington, the modern world had known neither a republic nor a president.

The hero of the war of independence, who, in contrast to his co-founders, didn’t pursue his studies for very long, had to make do without a job description. The Senate argued for weeks over the title that would be attributed to him. John Adams, who had his eye on the position, was leaning toward “His High Mightiness, the President of the United States and Protector of their Liberties.” James Madison, who would later become number four, put a stop to the debate and was able to make the Senate settle for “Mister President,” the title we still use today.

Ever since, the U.S. president has been something of a mix between a half-god and the people’s servant: a citizen to “administer the executive government of the United States,” as described by Washington in his farewell speech. As soon as he is elected, his life no longer belongs to him. A military band ends all his public appearances with fair grounds music (Hail to the Chief). The press has requisitioned the right to follow him every time he leaves the White House.

As much as his political decisions, what truly fascinates media commentators is the man himself. How does he react? Does he have the nerve for it? What about the moral fiber? Where does he place himself in the grand scheme of history? Is he more like Roosevelt or Lincoln? Carter? The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has contributed to the start of a major debate regarding Obama the man. The president immediately understood the range of the disaster, but he is being criticized for having remained in the background — for not having shown more passion, emotion or even agitation.

“[Most people] want him to emote and perform the proper theatrical gestures so they can see their emotions enacted on the public stage,” explains David Brooks in his New York Times chronicle. “They want to hold him responsible for things they know he doesn’t control.”

If the campaign is based on words, the presidency is based on image. The president tried to change the public’s perception a bit too late. He went back to Louisiana, and he performed the gestures. He knelt on the sand at Grand Isle to observe a few tar balls (as on his first visit, the oil spill in its slimy state was not visible that day).

He tried to say a few personal words. He mentioned his daughter Malia, who poked her head through the bathroom door while he shaved and asked, “Did you plug the hole yet, Daddy?” The picture of the razor blade was not very “presidential.” The comment fell through, even if Thomas Friedman of the New York Times offered to reverse the roles: “Malia for president…”

On Grand Isle, the population was disappointed when he didn’t even stop to shake hands. “Here, people are emotional. If he wants to touch their hearts, he needs to show emotion,”* said Bennie Ford, an island resident. The same lack of understanding was expressed by New York Times editor Maureen Dowd: “Once more, he has willfully and inexplicably resisted fulfilling a signal part of his job: being a prism in moments of fear and pride, reflecting what Americans feel so they know he gets it.”

Bill Clinton was famous for his ability to empathize. He played that tune so much that he was nicknamed President “Feel Your Pain.” In all evidence, Barack Obama is not Bill Clinton. “He scorns the paternal aspect of the presidency,” complains Dowd.

Less than two years after the election, a number of books that try to “[peel] back several layers of the onion that is Barack Obama” have already been published, says journalist Gwen Ifill. Half a dozen more are awaiting publication. In “The Promise: President Obama, Year One,” Jonathan Alter, a journalist from Newsweek, describes a man who loves to gamble but “with caution.”* A methodical, not very sentimental and self-assured “professor in chief,” “in nearly direct opposition to George W. Bush’s gut calls and distaste for process,” Obama delegates but controls everything. And he doesn’t hesitate to make decisions against all his advisers, as he did for health care reform.

When in the public eye, Barack Obama often looks like he is in the background, an eternal outsider, like the writer he has remained, considering his topic. If it is difficult to reproach him for not wanting to take responsibility for the symbolic paternal function, one may regret the fact that he has not inspired a grand historic vision for his mandate, he who turned “the most perfect union” into a horizon “one could believe in.” At a time of re-evaluation of the functioning of institutions and the role of the federal government, the left is leaving the monopoly of history in the hands of the ultra-conservative movement of the “Tea Parties.”

When it comes to being reserved, however, the first black president is well within the lineage. George Washington, who lost his father at the age of 11, never displayed his emotions. His officers used to say he never laughed in public.

*Editor’s Note: These quotations, accurately translated, could not be verified.