WHO IS BARACK OBAMA? – AT 10:39 P.M. ET:  It's incredible, but we're still asking that question more than two years after President Obama took office.  I know of no other recent president who remained such an enigma.  John Hughes of the Christian Science Monitor takes a rather dim view of the fact that Mr. Obama is so vaguely defined, despite the massive press coverage that he receives:

The Trump-for-president campaigners have been obsessed with whether President Obama was actually born in the United States. The really intriguing question, however, is not “Where was he born?” but “Who is he?”

During the 2008 campaign, Mr. Obama sent shivers down the spines of many Americans with electrifying oratory that swept him into the White House on a tsunami of public anticipation and excitement.

By many accounts, he has since proved to be a president of aloofness and withdrawal on issues both at home and abroad – an approach that defies attempts to define his vision and leaves us so far with a fuzzy picture of his leadership.

Is he an overcautious politician, practicing a sphinxlike reticence to avoid damaging his aura? Or is he simply incapable of the resolute decisionmaking that a President Ronald Reagan or even a President Bill Clinton would have brought to these turbulent times?

I vote for the second choice.

In a well-analyzed speech, the president offered a puzzling definition of his foreign-policy doctrine, which seemed to say that the US might or might not intervene in instances of aggression, but only with multilateral support and not for very long, depending on how tough the circumstances were.

Yeah.  Not exactly, "We will pay any price, bear any burden..."

f the US is ever to substantially reduce its mounting national budget deficit, the current costs of Medicare and Social Security, which make up a huge proportion of the budget, must be curbed. Beyond brief talking points, Obama is ducking the politically charged issue of entitlement reform while lambasting the Republicans for “asking for sacrifice from those who can least afford it.” This may be smart politics in 2012, but it is not the kind of White House leadership required to solve the entitlement problem.

And finally...

Obama has assigned Vice President Biden to be his point man in the looming battle in Congress over deficit reduction plans. Mr. Biden is a man of irrepressible energy and volubility, but he will have his work cut out for him. He can only move a deal so far forward. In the end, the president will have to demonstrate an involvement and leadership that has so far been elusive.

And, what's more, it never seems to get better.  We often hear that outstanding presidents grow in office.  Obama has sat in the office.  He seems exactly the same person he was when he was inaugurated.  We elected a personality, not a leader.  We elected a decision examiner, not a decision maker.  We are paying a price.   With the economy faltering once more, the Mideast in flames, and allies increasingly ignoring the American president, that price can only increase.

April 29, 2011