December 30, 2009--Cousin Barry
The debate rages about what did and did not happen to prevent Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab from boarding a Delta flight in Amsterdam bound for Detroit.
Initially, all the criticisms of the security system came from Republicans and had the aroma of bitter partisanship and raw ambition.
Republican Congressman Peter King, for example, was the first out of the chute. He is the ranking member of the House Committee On Homeland Security and has his eye on running for the Senate in New York next November because Hillary Clinton’s replacement, Kirstin Gillibrand, is considered to be vulnerable. Incapable of avoiding a camera or live microphone, King raced from network to network, from talk show to talk show to rail about the Obama administration’s failure to declare that we are fighting a war against terrorism (the president is reluctant to use that phrase) and act accordingly.
Others such as Republican Minority Leader John Boehner took time out of his busy holiday schedule in the tanning booth to rip into Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s ridiculous assertion over the weekend that the “system worked.”
Congressman Peter Hoekstra, who is running to become governor of Michigan, circulated a letter among local Republicans seeking campaign contributions in order to help counter “Democratic efforts to weaken our security.”
And Senator Jim DeMint, Republican of South Carolina, who has taken the personal lead since September to block the appointment of a chief executive for the Transportation Security Administration, claiming that he is doing so because nominee Erroll Southers might allow airport TSA workers to unionize, joined the chorus of hypocrites.
He and other Republicans also failed to remind us why they as a party in Congress voted almost unanimously against the $44 billion appropriation for America’s transportation security budget.
Having said this, there is enough blame to go around. Officials at the airport in Amsterdam blew it as did we. President Obama at his second public statement of the day yesterday revealed that U.S. intelligence and security personnel had a lot more information about Mr. Abdulmutallab than previously disclosed and that they failed to connect the dots. This we have tragically heard before. This time, we got lucky. (See linked New York Times story for the details.)
Additionally, President Obama himself has been criticized for not coming out of what many in the media called “seclusion” in Hawaii sooner than three days after the incident to help calm the public, especially during this busy holiday and travel season.
What happened, others asked, to this administration’s political instincts? They were so adept during the campaign and now they appear to be so tone deaf.
Yes, it is a good thing for the president to try to deintensify some things after all the fear-mongering during the Bush years—seeing things in good and evil terms and cynically exploiting our fear for their nefarious purposes--but at times such as this being No-Drama-Obama is not helping him to get the job done. The job of leading the country; advancing his agenda; and, very importantly, building public confidence and support by helping us feel we are in good hands. That he will not only promulgate sound policies at home and abroad but also, in the emotional realm, show us that he feels our pain when we are hurting and will make us feel secure when we are frightened.
Like it or not, the American people at times such as these turn to their presidents for such empathetic understanding and comfort. And thus far, Barack Obama is failing this test.
Effective presidents from Franklyn Roosevelt to Dwight Eisenhower to Ronald Reagan to Bill Clinton had the ability to connect with us in these ways when we needed them to make us feel cared about, protected, and comforted.
During the Depression and World War Two, people literally huddled by their radios to listen to FDR’s Fireside Chats. They listened as much to the fatherly timbre of his voice as to his words. Perhaps more so. Eisenhower and Reagan, during the Cold War when we feared nuclear attack, were able to find ways to make us feel that they were taking care of us regardless of what they were actually doing.
Psychologists would say that they engendered transference. In this case not the one-on-one kind that occurs in a therapeutic relationship but nationally. They became our national fathers. Or at least our great uncles. And then even wayward big brother Bill Clinton was greatly talented at convincing us that he felt our pain.
It mattered not that neither FDR nor Eisenhower nor Reagan in their personal lives were actually good or loving parents or grandparents. And of course forget about Clinton as a family man. But they were still able to project to the public that they would care for and protect the national family.
Ironically, Obama, who may in fact be a wonderful husband and father, has thus far not been able to find or fill this kind of politically important transferential role. And thus, though he is as smart as they come and is working 24/7 even when in “seclusion” in Hawaii, he feels too cool for these hot and scary times.
Initially, all the criticisms of the security system came from Republicans and had the aroma of bitter partisanship and raw ambition.
Republican Congressman Peter King, for example, was the first out of the chute. He is the ranking member of the House Committee On Homeland Security and has his eye on running for the Senate in New York next November because Hillary Clinton’s replacement, Kirstin Gillibrand, is considered to be vulnerable. Incapable of avoiding a camera or live microphone, King raced from network to network, from talk show to talk show to rail about the Obama administration’s failure to declare that we are fighting a war against terrorism (the president is reluctant to use that phrase) and act accordingly.
Others such as Republican Minority Leader John Boehner took time out of his busy holiday schedule in the tanning booth to rip into Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s ridiculous assertion over the weekend that the “system worked.”
Congressman Peter Hoekstra, who is running to become governor of Michigan, circulated a letter among local Republicans seeking campaign contributions in order to help counter “Democratic efforts to weaken our security.”
And Senator Jim DeMint, Republican of South Carolina, who has taken the personal lead since September to block the appointment of a chief executive for the Transportation Security Administration, claiming that he is doing so because nominee Erroll Southers might allow airport TSA workers to unionize, joined the chorus of hypocrites.
He and other Republicans also failed to remind us why they as a party in Congress voted almost unanimously against the $44 billion appropriation for America’s transportation security budget.
Having said this, there is enough blame to go around. Officials at the airport in Amsterdam blew it as did we. President Obama at his second public statement of the day yesterday revealed that U.S. intelligence and security personnel had a lot more information about Mr. Abdulmutallab than previously disclosed and that they failed to connect the dots. This we have tragically heard before. This time, we got lucky. (See linked New York Times story for the details.)
Additionally, President Obama himself has been criticized for not coming out of what many in the media called “seclusion” in Hawaii sooner than three days after the incident to help calm the public, especially during this busy holiday and travel season.
What happened, others asked, to this administration’s political instincts? They were so adept during the campaign and now they appear to be so tone deaf.
Yes, it is a good thing for the president to try to deintensify some things after all the fear-mongering during the Bush years—seeing things in good and evil terms and cynically exploiting our fear for their nefarious purposes--but at times such as this being No-Drama-Obama is not helping him to get the job done. The job of leading the country; advancing his agenda; and, very importantly, building public confidence and support by helping us feel we are in good hands. That he will not only promulgate sound policies at home and abroad but also, in the emotional realm, show us that he feels our pain when we are hurting and will make us feel secure when we are frightened.
Like it or not, the American people at times such as these turn to their presidents for such empathetic understanding and comfort. And thus far, Barack Obama is failing this test.
Effective presidents from Franklyn Roosevelt to Dwight Eisenhower to Ronald Reagan to Bill Clinton had the ability to connect with us in these ways when we needed them to make us feel cared about, protected, and comforted.
During the Depression and World War Two, people literally huddled by their radios to listen to FDR’s Fireside Chats. They listened as much to the fatherly timbre of his voice as to his words. Perhaps more so. Eisenhower and Reagan, during the Cold War when we feared nuclear attack, were able to find ways to make us feel that they were taking care of us regardless of what they were actually doing.
Psychologists would say that they engendered transference. In this case not the one-on-one kind that occurs in a therapeutic relationship but nationally. They became our national fathers. Or at least our great uncles. And then even wayward big brother Bill Clinton was greatly talented at convincing us that he felt our pain.
It mattered not that neither FDR nor Eisenhower nor Reagan in their personal lives were actually good or loving parents or grandparents. And of course forget about Clinton as a family man. But they were still able to project to the public that they would care for and protect the national family.
Ironically, Obama, who may in fact be a wonderful husband and father, has thus far not been able to find or fill this kind of politically important transferential role. And thus, though he is as smart as they come and is working 24/7 even when in “seclusion” in Hawaii, he feels too cool for these hot and scary times.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
6:02 AM
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