WHEN David Plouffe, President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign manager, wrote recently that his former boss was “not concerned with his re-election”, there was predictable scepticism…
In this case, however, Plouffe may inadvertently be onto something. Almost everything Obama does these days suggests that he doesn’t care much about being re-elected. Strange as it might seem, perhaps he wants to be a one-term president…
It seems highly unlikely that Obama will decide not to run in 2012. But he might well be calculating that a embarking post-presidential role as the leading global thinker in the post-American world as a Republican successor enters office is more attractive than being sullied by the political compromises and manoeuvrings necessary to win.
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But the president probably isn’t all that worried. There’s plenty of time and space for improvement, particularly if unemployment numbers drop. And as the second-term victories of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush suggest, we are hardly reelecting great presidents these days; average ones will do quite nicely, as long as the economy stays strong.
In fact, if Obama is reelected in 2012, for only the second time in our history we will have had three different two-term presidents in a row. The last time this happened was in the early 19th century (Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe). And what does this tell you? Americans aren’t so much looking for great presidents, big ideas or historic transformations. They want satisfaction on mundane matters such as prosperity, keeping Americans safe from terrorist attacks and an end to the roller-coaster ride of partisanship, name-calling and celebrity politics that is Washington today.
The president may not have gotten that message the first time around; if he’s lucky, maybe he’ll get it the next time.
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