Howard Gardner, a developmental psychologist based at Harvard who studies leadership, has a theory that Obama’s troubles stem from the fact that people don’t have a clear sense of what he would go to the mat for, that he’s been defined more by the compromises he’s willing to make than his core convictions.
By way of example, Gardner cites the movie Invictus, in which everybody tells Nelson Mandela that he shouldn’t support the national all-white rugby team, which was associated with everything the new South Africa hated. But Mandela saw what was needed to bring the country together. In playing Mandela, Morgan Freeman knows how to listen and be respectful, but the steel comes through. Obama likes to set in place orderly processes to navigate tough issues, and that’s great, but the voters want to know what he feels in his marrow. “Right now, they think he doesn’t care enough about the things they care about. They want to see the passion, even if they don’t agree with him,” says Gardner…
Achieving health-care reform should be a moment of celebration, yet polls show the legislation is less popular with voters than the troop buildup in Afghanistan, a tribute to the Republicans’ negative framing of the issue and a consequence of Obama’s leadership style. Gardner doesn’t doubt that Obama has core beliefs. The president’s idealism and pragmatism are threads through his books. But his failure to convey his principles while he makes the necessary compromises lessens his ability to take credit for what he’s accomplished.
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