| The President's Biggest Mistake, Not Enough Storytelling |
| Jul-13-2012 |
| Keywords: corporate profits, rally, wall street, jp morgan chase, wells fargo, china |
A publicly opposed reform to health care. A mediocre stimulus that's resulted in unemployment of 8% or more for 41 straight months. Divisive rhetoric that has split the nation along socioeconomic lines rather than bringing the sides closer together.
These would all be reasonable answers to a question Charlie Rose asked President Obama in a taped interview on Thursday.
President Obama's answer, "When I think about what we've done well and what we haven't done well, the mistake of my first term -- couple of years -- was thinking that this job was just about getting the policy right," Obama told CBS This Morning anchor Charlie Rose.
"And that's important," Obama said. "But the nature of this office is also to tell a story to the American people that gives them a sense of unity and purpose and optimism, especially during tough times."
The president went on to say, "It's funny -- when I ran, everybody said, well he can give a good speech but can he actually manage the job?"
"And in my first two years, I think the notion was, 'Well, he's been juggling and managing a lot of stuff, but where's the story that tells us where he's going?' And I think that was a legitimate criticism."
But his critics have found nothing funny about his answer.
Mitt Romney said in a statement that, "President Obama believes that millions of Americans have lost their homes, their jobs and their livelihood because he failed to tell a good story. Being president is not about telling stories. Being president is about leading, and President Obama has failed to lead. No wonder Americans are losing faith in his presidency."
Republican spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski said Obama's economic policies are the problem.
"With 23 million people struggling under our slow economy, the decision for voters isn't 'can the president tell a good story,'" Kukowski said. "It's can the president create jobs?'" |
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Posted by Lou Dobbs Staff at 10:00 AM Email to a friend |
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