While we were busy dodging downpours of rain on Friday in South Florida, trying NOT to get drenched walking from a parking lot to wherever we needed to be, or NOT get blindsided on the local, often-poorly lit roads by one of the LARGE NUMBER of South Florida drivers who DON'T believe in using their headlights when it rains -a higher percentage in HB, it goes without saying- the Washington Post was running White House correspondent Scott Wilson's latest piece, and it's devastating.
It's one of the most insightful and persuasive articles of the year, detailing how President Obama's own personality comes into conflict with what he needs to do on a practical level in order to be successful with his own supporters on Capitol Hill, let alone, House Speaker John Boehner and the Hill Republicans and the nation at large.
The Washington Post
Obama, the loner president
By Scott Wilson
October 7, 2011
Beyond the economy, the wars and the polls, President Obama has a problem: people.This president endures with little joy the small talk and back-slapping of retail politics, rarely spends more than a few minutes on a rope line, refuses to coddle even his biggest donors. His relationship with Democrats on Capitol Hill is frosty, to be generous. Personal lobbying on behalf of legislation? He prefers to leave that to Vice President Biden, an old-school political charmer.Obama’s circle of close advisers is as small as the cluster of personal friends that predates his presidency. There is no entourage, no Friends of Barack to explain or defend a politician who has confounded many supporters with his cool personality and penchant for compromise.
Read the rest of the article at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/obama-the-loner-president/2011/10/03/gIQAHFcSTL_story.html
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