Like many other once-ardent Obama supporters, I’ve spent the last five years with a mounting sensation of buyer’s remorse. “[I]f Obama puts into his foreign policy strategy one-tenth of the talent, innovation and discipline he put into his campaign,” I wrote after the 2008 election, “he’ll be able to make real headway on a range of critical issues.” But maybe that grueling campaign just wore him out. In the Obama White House, innovation became reactiveness, discipline became rigidity, and a tight inner circle of campaign aides and Chicago pals tried to micro-manage the entire executive branch.
I have written elsewhere about some of the Obama administration’s self-inflicted wounds, so I won’t go into detail here. But it’s been painful to watch the team that ran such a brilliant campaign flail around in search of a strategy, bungle their relationship with Congress, botch rollout after rollout, and miss opportunity after opportunity. …
Here’s the irony, Hillary: Arguably, the very qualities that allowed Barack Obama to write an inspiring book like Dreams from my Father are some of the same qualities that have kept him from being an inspiring president.
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