Obama: Finished Too Soon?

The second-term woes of U.S. presidents are nothing new; all presidents have suffered them, but in Barack Obama’s case, they seem to have arrived ahead of time and be stronger than with his predecessors. The leader is extremely unpopular, betrayed by members of his own cabinet, and everything seems to point to the fact that he will soon have a Senate controlled by his enemies.

For Ronald Reagan, the nightmare following his reelection was the Iran-Contra affair; for Bill Clinton, the affair with Monica Lewinsky. George W. Bush had Hurricane Katrina, while the current president seems to have reached two years too soon “lame duck” status, a term which is generally applied to the last few months of government, when power escapes from their hands and supporters and opponents look away, devoting themselves to politics.

If next Tuesday’s predictions are proven true in the Congressional midterm elections, Republicans will obtain the majority in the Senate, largely helped by low satisfaction with the president’s leadership, which one in every three Americans blames for the direction the country is headed and for not knowing how to solve a crisis like Ebola and the threat that the Islamic State represents.

Everything seems to point to the fact that if Republicans gain control of Congress and continue to be the majority in the House of Representatives, the president will spend what remains of this administration sitting idly, unable to carry out his agenda, and trying to reach compromise, however minimal. It is expected that Republicans will block him on everything; not only his tax reform, his proposal to raise the minimum wage and the expansion of preschool education, but also projects he promised and which were believed to be the key legacies of this administration, such as closing down Guantanamo prison and establishing new immigration laws.

It is on immigration where Obama is considered to have almost no possibility of reaching an agreement and obtaining any kind of Republican support. We must not forget that Florida’s Senator Marco Rubio was aligned with the Democrats and soon fell into disgrace with right-wing groups. And what is there to say of Eric Cantor, who was the majority leader, and who was left without a job for taking the president’s side? “[Obama] is perilously close to becoming a lame duck 33 months before he leaves office. That is bad for him, bad for the country and bad for the world,” says the influential political analyst David Gergen.

As if this wasn’t enough, Obama is suffering from criticism in books by very close collaborators, officials whom he trusted, whom he distinguished by calling them to his side and publicly praised, and who now make money by criticizing him. This has created controversy not only about the loyalty and love of public service, but also about the purpose behind these texts such as the one from former Secretary of Defense and former CIA director, Leon Panetta, coming to light just as the Congressional elections are almost here.

Panetta, who received $3 million for his book, criticizes the president for pulling troops out of Iraq, for his policies in regard to Syria and for his handling of the cabinet, and says that Obama “avoids the battle, complains, and misses opportunities.” Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton has told him, “don’t do stupid stuff.” Robert Gates, Obama’s first secretary of defense, accuses him, among other things, of not wanting to commit in foreign policy. And it’s not only them: His former press secretary, Robert Gibbs, and his closest advisor, David Axelrod, also have appeared on television contradicting the president.

No wonder the president has started to talk about his life after Washington and the influence he hopes to have when he packs up his belongings from the Oval Office. Obama wishes to go back to the issues that were central to him before the White House, such as the racial problem and helping minority youth make progress. He has also said that he longs for the beach and a coconut. And who wouldn’t, in his place?