Obama: Weaker Than Ever

After a break to live closer to Mexico, this column returns and finds that for President Barack Obama things are getting worse every day. And though, despite the criticism, he took a holiday, he couldn’t concentrate on golf, overwhelmed as he was by reports of fighting in Libya, an unusual earthquake that shook Washington, Hurricane Irene, which devastated several states and, worst of all, the news that there are very few who consider him worthy of being re-elected.

And there’s very few — only a mere 43 percent, the lowest since he came to the White House — who think that the president is doing a good job, while a high of 73 percent of the public is convinced that this president, who awoke so many hopes, is not leading the country in the right direction.

Anger and frustration with Obama are not new. He started to disappoint almost as soon as he took office, but the disappointment has grown equally with poverty, because the economy continues to decline, and the unemployment rate is still nearly 10 percent, the highest that any president has faced since World War II.

Upon arriving at the Oval Office, Obama promised to create 200,500 new jobs each month. He has not done so. If anything he has been able to create 50,000 a month, but even worse, during August not a single new job was created. This comes as 14 million people are unemployed, 6 million have spent more than six months looking for work, and 8 million work part-time because that was all they could get.

This, without counting the millions of young college graduates who supported Obama — who, despite being highly qualified, cannot get jobs or find work as waiters, nannies or telephone operators.

Trying to cope with the labor crisis, the president, known as “no drama Obama,” reported to Congress his intention of using the platform of the Capitol to announce this Wednesday his highly anticipated speech, outlining a plan to end unemployment.

Surprisingly, and outside of any tradition and good custom, the Republican House Majority Leader John Boehner said no to Obama, but that he would gladly open the doors the next day.

The explanation was that after their vacation, Congress was not ready to have a visitor, but the reality is that the Republicans didn’t want to risk sharing an audience, since that same night a televised debate is planned with those in the Republican Party who are aspiring to Obama’s position.

To the anger of the Democrats, the president gave way to the Republican leaders and will speak Thursday, but on that day the White House is afraid that no one will listen because it is the start of football season, so the presidential address will start at 7 p.m. and not at 9 p.m., which is the traditional start time.

For Obama’s sympathizers, the fact that the White House has agreed to change the date and time is another sign of presidential weakness. Political blogger Markos Moulitsas, of the website Daily Kos, said on Twitter that, “I hope Boehner doesn’t ask Obama for his lunch money. The president would go hungry that day.”

It is increasingly obvious that those who voted for Obama now have many doubts about the priorities and the president’s ability to govern; it is estimated from recent polls that only 38 percent of the Americans want to see him re-elected. Obama, says those who were once his faithful followers, is avoiding confrontation and lacks the courage to face his enemies.

Another problem is that Obama’s speeches do not work as well: Words have stopped being enough, and the people want facts. Also, the president has lost his passion and eloquence that he showed during his campaign.

At age 50, this politician, who was a global superstar in 2008, seems to be off, and some Democrats have started murmuring that he might not stay for four more years in his current post.

The president knows that his re-election depends on the economy and employment. He knows that to be re-elected he needs to find millions of jobs for those who need one. Perhaps healing in health, he said, “I’d rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president.” As things are right now, he could soon be replaced and would not exactly go down in history as a winner.