Where Did Obama Go?

Global stock markets have not believed a single word of the debt agreement after weeks of discussions that have frustrated Americans, according to a study led by the Pew Research Center. Seventy-two percent of Americans have found the political discussions on national debt “stupid,” “ridiculous” and “disgusting.”

Standard & Poor’s decision to lower the United States’ credit rating — from AAA to AA+ — reflects what American citizens feel themselves, apart from the “spin doctors” of Washington: Something has clicked and the president, whose role is to speak to the country, to reassure and show that its interests will be taken care of, has disappeared.

The tragicomedy of negotiations on raising the debt ceiling is complete nonsense. What counts for the American citizens is the state of the economy. Three years after the stock market crash of 2008, 9.1 percent of Americans are still unemployed. Every month, thousands of Americans lose their homes. Raising the debt ceiling will not change the living conditions of millions of people without a job and also, “thanks” to the weakness of Barack Obama, losing state aid in the discussions meant cuts to spending, without talking — for a single moment — about the taxation of the wealthy. Even today, hedge funds continue to only pay a 15 percent tax. The New Yorker, in its recent feature on Ray Dalio, CEO of Bridgewater, the richest hedge fund, noted that Bridgewater had made between $2 to $3 billion dollars last year, but thanks to a smart tax tip, Dalio paid less taxes than the average American. And the Republicans find this fair. They prefer to attack the weakest: those who do not contribute to their election funds.

The worst is Barack Obama’s inability to make his voice heard. The most eloquent politician of his generation has lost his voice. He has lost the voice to tell Americans the truth and the voice to denounce those who have taken the country as hostage. And he has lost his voice before the GOP and the tea party, relinquishing his weapons before them. And yet, it is a lesson that all the psychologists know: Giving way to the playground bully only assures that he will continue to bully. In 1936, during a speech in Madison Square Garden, President Roosevelt declared: “Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me — and I welcome their hatred.” FDR had the courage and the strength of character not only to go against those who had brought the country to its knees, but above all, those he himself had appointed. Never once during these weeks of obscene negotiations has Barack Obama denounced those who have led the country to its current ruin. In a long essay published in The New York Times under the title of “What Happened to Obama?” Professor Drew Western pointed to the fact that Obama’s aversion to conflict situations has led him to agree with his enemies. And enemies to the average American, even if it causes the U.S. to withdraw and, for the first time in history, deprive it of its AAA rating.