The Unapproachable President

He keeps people at arm’s length; Barack Obama is a political lone wolf.

It is well known that life in the highest office has its own rules and political power quite often means isolation and solitude. American presidents, from Thomas Jefferson to Abraham Lincoln to Jimmy Carter, can (or could) tell you a thing or two about it. Some of them, like Gerald Ford, managed to overcome the isolation with the help of a protective circle of friends or a lively family. There were also those who, like Bill Clinton, by means of their temperament and character, possessed the ability to break through barriers and keep their finger on the pulse of the people.

Still others submerged themselves into the seclusion of the White House. Richard Nixon, as we know, spent many a solitary night talking to the portraits of his predecessors. And Barack Obama is also starting to look isolated. This president probably stays separate intentionally: He is a lone wolf. His life story gives the impression of a man who never really stays anywhere for a long period and who doesn’t take to strangers at all.

He Likes Discourse

And so Obama, who is approaching the end of his third year in office, remains a mystery, a politician who appreciates critical discourse and intense discussions but not the fuss about politics. He told author Ron Suskind about his preoccupation with sensitive content and phenomena, musing that he had the disease of being a “policy wonk.” This president loves pondering how to keep health care costs down but detests shaking hands with voters and kissing their babies. He feels most comfortable with people when he can keep his distance from them. “It’s as if he doesn’t like people,” says businessman and publisher Mort Zuckerman with regard to the sphinx-like U.S. president.

At public appearances, Bill Clinton was always trying to be close to the voters, famously claiming that he could feel their pain, unremittingly shaking hands and hugging those nearest to him. Barack Obama, on the other hand, abhors such campaign duties. He hastily presses some flesh and conducts a bit of small talk before he departs (sooner rather than later) and moves back into his cocoon.

Invisible from the Outside

Riding in an armored bus, this over-intellectual politician visited Virginia and North Carolina last week — two states he won back in 2008 and where he has to win again in November 2012 in order to secure a second term. However, instead of sharing his luxurious vehicle with citizens to whom he might have given a short lift, Obama chose to travel alone, accompanied only by a small staff. He was able to watch the landscape through tinted windows, but he remained invisible from the outside.

In Hampton, Virginia, some of his supporters clearly invited him to join them. A block away from them he got off the bus, apparently unable to decide where to go. The crowd was cheering him. He gave them a quick wave and got back on the bus. If Bill Clinton or George W. Bush had found themselves in that situation, they would have walked toward their fans, talked to them and signed autographs. Barack Obama, on the contrary, doesn’t walk around, despite the fact that Americans still like him regardless of political differences.

Frosty Relations

“He likes politics, but like a campaign manager likes politics, not a candidate.” This is the assessment of a Washington Post journalist with inside knowledge about the Harvard graduate, whose difficulty to show his human side has already affected his relationship with his own party. Obama has frosty relations with the Democratic bigwigs on Capitol Hill, where he has lost a lot of good will in just three years. “What they say about [Mr. Obama] when he’s not in the room, so to speak, is astonishing,” recounts Zuckerman.

The president doesn’t coddle his fellow Democrats. It’s very seldom that he even invites them for a drink. And he consults them even more rarely. David Axelrod, an old friend and adviser of Obama, said, “He’s not a guy that leans on others too much. He processes things in his own mind.” Former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker stated that Obama was full of self-confidence, and it could be precisely that overestimation of his abilities that prevents him from seeking advice from around him like Bill Clinton did. Furthermore, this seems to correspond with Obama’s basic disposition to always handle problems on his own instead of sharing them with others.

Alone in the Virtual World

Even his own cabinet members complain about the president’s aloofness. Only a few old friends from Chicago, his wife Michelle and his two daughters are really close to him. Once his children go to bed, the president retires to his small office in the residence wing of the White House, laden with files. One of them holds 10 letters from concerned citizens, cherry-picked by the president’s staff for his evening read.

Afterwards, Obama withdraws into the isolation of the Internet. He wanders about virtual worlds by means of his browser, far from the turmoil of the new campaign and the people who would like to greet him and entrust something to him.

Life hasn’t always been easy for Obama. However, unlike Clinton, who also grew up in a broken family, he seems to have difficulty empathizing with people, a political burden for a president who wants to be re-elected next year.