Riverdaughter on leadership

The word "leadership" has been kicked around a lot by the Obama squad this year. Like "change" it has been rendered almost meaningless. In the case of "leadership" I don't blame Obama for neutering the meaning. For years the most duplicitous politicians have debased the meaning. The Cheney/Bush version of the word meant "We are doing it my way or else." Which, since he often got his way in the first term, was a form of leadership.

Leaders aren't always inclusive. But great ones are. The Obama usage of the word "leader" is odder and more restrictive than even Bush's- if that's possible. The Obama vision of "leadership" is entirely about one person - himself. He's lead expertly on promoting a visceral idea called "Obama". Which is not an idea at all. For the life of me I can't think of a single issue he's lead on. I won't belabor this point because Riveraughter has a terrific post on the topic today.
I refused to vote for Barack Obama because I knew he came up empty on the capacity for moral leadership.

This sentence is surprisingly true. The Obama cult's meme now is that he is reaching past old divisions. But he is not. He's attempting to paper over them, apparently believing the force of his personality will render the most wrenching social issues mute. It won't.

Obama is increasingly in danger of becoming the anti-Truman. Truman, via executive order, ended segregation in the armed forces in 1948 - the summer before he was to stand for election. That was, as they say , ballsy. The Southern delegates walked out of the Democratic convention.

Obama has failed the leadership test on all major fronts so far: FISA, Public financing, the rampant sexism in the campaign. On FISA and public financing he issued the lamest excuses imaginable for his flip flops. They were laughable. On the sexism, apparent to all thinking people through out the year, he remained all but mute, signalling assent in some cases.

Presidents do not have to be moral leaders. But the great ones are. Once again, the difference between the Obama myth and the real world Obama is enormous.

So far.

Riverdaughter rightly implies that Obama is already hard at work on his re-election, leading the way on his favorite cause - himself.