Media asking questions about Obama
It took them awhile, those who are even asking now. Many are not.
Chris Matthews, of all people, is.
Chris Matthews on Saturday slammed Barack Obama in his worst criticism to date of the man that used to give him a thrill up is leg.
Speaking to the host of MSNBC’s Weekends with Alex Witt, Matthews excoriated the President saying, “The day he got inaugurated, he sent us all home and said, ‘Thank you, now watch how smart I am.’ That’s the worst kind of a notion of the presidency”.
He doesn’t have to be brilliant, Matthews says, most presidents weren’t. Great ones just need to know how to lead.
If I could say one thing to Barack Obama, “Stop showing us how smart you are and lead us. Ask us to do something. Pull us behind you. Enlist us in the service of our country. Ask us to do something.” There is no Peace Corps. There is no Special Forces. There is no 50 mile hikes. There’s no moon program. There’s nothing to root for.
What are we trying to do in this administration? Why does he want a second term? Would he tell us? What’s he going to do in the second term? More of this? Is this it? Is this as good as it gets? Where are we going? Are we going to do something the second term? He has yet to tell us. He has not said one thing about what he would do in the second term. He never tells us what he is going to do with reforming our healthcare systems, Medicare, Medicaid, how is going to reform Social Security. Is he going to deal with long-term debt? How? Is he going to reform the tax system? How? Just tell us. Why are we in this fight with him? Just tell us, Commander, give us our orders and tell us where we’re going, give us the mission. And he hasn’t done it.
And I think it’s the people around him, too many people around, they’re little kids with propellers on their heads. They’re all virtual. Politics, this social networking, I get these e-mails, you probably get them. I’m tired of getting them. Stop giving them to me. I want to meet people. Their idea of running a campaign is a virtual universe of sending e-mails around to people. No it’s not. It’s meetings with people, it’s forging alliances. It’s White House meetings and dinner parties that go on till midnight, and he should be sitting late at night now with senators and members of Congress and governors working together on how they’re going to win this political fight that’s coming.
I don’t have a sense that he’s ever had a meeting. I hear stories that you will not believe. Not a single phone call since the last election.
So now there’s scrutiny.
I think everybody feels an absence of communication from the time he’s been elected. And it’s not about not being left-wing enough or too left. That’s not his problem. It’s connection. And Mrs. Obama, she’s an amazing asset. And what has she done? Obesity? How about connecting with the American people about being Americans? I don’t think she’s, I don’t think she’s happy. I don’t think they like being in the White House. The American people can tell that. They don’t seem thrilled at the fact the American people have selected them as our first family. I don’t sense the gratitude, the happiness level, the thrill of being president.
He’s got another year for sure. We’ll be watching.
