An inaccurate assessment

There is a claim by many on the far right, and an increasing number of moderates and even on the right that "Barack Obama is in over his head when it comes to running the country". Well doh! There is no school for aspiring Presidents! And even if there's one, leadership is an art of character and not the result of some schooling - otherwise, who could argue against hereditary rule!

No American President, not even the very first, George Washington had any idea what it was like to be President until the day after they swore that oath! Nothing prepares your for leadership than the act itself - Not length of time as Governor (as George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Rick Perry), nor the length of services as a US senator or any other role. Rick Perry's long years as Texas Governor has not helped him even as a candidate and George W. Bush's governorship did not prepare him to know that Africa is not a country.  The job, the briefings, the responsibilities and the character of the individuals; their advisors, their opponents, and the socio-economic state of the nation and the world ultimately shape each President and help determine their success or failure, if it is fair to even judge them as such.

A President is blamed for everything from the moral state of the nation, to crime rate, and the state of unemployment. It is even more ridiculous when Presidents get blamed for global crises as if they have so much influence on their outcomes - all the time. Obama gets his fair share of blame as has every other President before hime, but these blame games are unfair and detract even politicians who aspire to do good from seeing the picture clearly.

A century and a half later, Abraham Lincoln is regarded as one of the best Presidents the United States ever had. He is credited with preserving the Republic and emancipating the slaves. But while the civil war ragged, Lincoln was derided by many in his time as being in over his head too. At that time, he had never served, never held an executive position as is not what you would call a job creator. Indeed, few people will even credit Lincoln as an intellectual at that time, and he sure did not fit into the Washington social circles. But after his assassination, a bereaved nation became a grateful nation. But a newly freed slave wondered when his citizenship will be complete - That took another hundred years!

In 2000, few Americans would think of Bill Clinton as a great President, but a decade after a GOP led onslaught on the nation's economy (two massive tax cuts, two wars and a prescription drug benefit to no where) reversed a hard fought surplus into a disastrous deficit, not a few people are clamoring for the good old days - and even Clinton publicly advocates for a third term for people like himself. The man was almost chased out of office in the late 1990s. 

It took George W. Bush all of 8 months to see to the nation's most vulnerable moment with the 9/11 attacks that caught the intelligence and law enforcement agencies napping. His decision to go to war, either war, may some day be seen as the death knell on American global leadership. But the people who voted for him, twice, and even pine for his return look to an exceptional America and blame the current occupant of the White House as naive and unprepared for the job.

The narrative did not start on the street. It started with the politico. It was rehashed on talk radio and became the rallying cry of those who would not dare call the President names at the height of his popularity right after the sights of the nation's first minority president sent the national stock up high. But the narrative seems to have found reception in the more rationale enclaves. It is now common to hear otherwise highly intelligent people (even those who support the president) lament his lack of experience!

A lack of experience, that gradually moved the ship of nation away from economic disaster and stanched the hemorrhaging of jobs. A lack of experience that ensured the US still has some modicum of manufacturing capability left with the deft rescue of the US auto-industry. A lack of experience that help passed a landmark health care law, that for all intent and purposes changed the nature of the debate forever - whatever the Supreme court's verdict is. A lack of experience that saw to the deft handling of global crises, diverting global angst from the United States. Iran arrested and freed three American tourists. North Korea arrested and freed American jay-walker and Myanmar is trending towards the US. Despite its bellicose prime minister, Russia has been more supportive of US leadership in Iran and the Middle East - and Natanyahu's belligerence is more a reflection of his high-powered connection to a near traitorous GOP majority leader than a lack of respect for America's president.

Obama has shown, and history will judge, as most American presidents before him that the job of president has no better mentor than life itself, and his life experience from the streets of Indonesia to the south side of Chicago has all the ingredients anyone need to successfully lead a nation - even a nation that sits on the hilly - a beacon to the rest of the world.