F Scott Fitzgerald said in the opening of The Great Gatsby, "I was going to become that most limited of all specialist the well rounded man.
This isn't an epigram, life is more successfully looked at from a single window after all.
" Certainly President Obama is that most limited of specialists...
the visionary.
He is at his best when painting a picture, providing a vision, pointing us the way.
Then he gets in his limousine and heads for the next campaign rally.
This isn't something new.
We have had very successful Presidents that are visionaries.
President Reagan was masterful at pointing us in a direction and letting others do the hard work of implementing his vision and for a demoralized country it worked.
Visionaries are leaders.
They touch a star and tell us how to get there and then have legions of people do the dirty work while they ride herd.
The question is...
can we afford a visionary now? Healthcare reform would say no.
President Obama was masterful right up to the point the whole thing blew up.
He carefully remained above the fray right up to where he lost touch with the American people.
As any visionary knows it is a balancing act between staying above and intervening just enough to keep things moving.
With President Obama we began to get a remote control type of Presidency.
When I voted for Barack I had one fear...
that he would not dig in for the hard work and run the high risk that any gambler knows is the bluff.
It would seem his bluff was called and now he has to scramble.
The question is can he dig in for the hard work Leaders cannot dig into minutiae.
When things are going moderately well a visionary can do his slight of hand and wink and things will generally fall in place.
But when you have a five alarm fire that is our economy...
you better be able to dig in and stow the vision for a while.