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| President Barack Obama |
But over the course of
this campaign it feels as if there’s been a decline in behavioral
standards across the board. Many of the traits of character and
leadership that Obama possesses, and that maybe we have taken too much
for granted, have suddenly gone missing or are in short supply.
The
first and most important of these is basic integrity. The Obama
administration has been remarkably scandal-free. Think of the way
Iran-contra or the Lewinsky scandals swallowed years from Reagan and
Clinton.
We’ve had very little of that from
Obama. He and his staff have generally behaved with basic rectitude.
Hillary Clinton is constantly having to hold these defensive press
conferences when she’s trying to explain away some vaguely shady
shortcut she’s taken, or decision she has made, but Obama has not had to
do that.
He and his wife have not only
displayed superior integrity themselves, they have mostly attracted and
hired people with high personal standards. There are all sorts of
unsightly characters floating around politics, including in the Clinton
camp and in Gov. Chris Christie’s administration. This sort has been
blocked from team Obama.
Second, a sense of
basic humanity. Donald Trump has spent much of this campaign vowing to
block Muslim immigration. You can only say that if you treat Muslim
Americans as an abstraction. President Obama, meanwhile, went to a
mosque, looked into people’s eyes and gave a wonderful speech reasserting their place as Americans.
He’s exuded this basic care and respect for the
dignity of others time and time again. Let’s put it this way: Imagine if
Barack and Michelle Obama joined the board of a charity you’re involved
in. You’d be happy to have such people in your community. Could you say
that comfortably about Ted Cruz? The quality of a president’s humanity
flows out in the unexpected but important moments.
Third,
a soundness in his decision-making process. Over the years I have
spoken to many members of this administration who were disappointed that
the president didn’t take their advice. But those disappointed staffers
almost always felt that their views had been considered in depth.
Obama’s
basic approach is to promote his values as much as he can within the
limits of the situation. Bernie Sanders, by contrast, has been so
blinded by his values that the reality of the situation does not seem to
penetrate his mind.
Take health care.
Passing Obamacare was a mighty lift that led to two gigantic midterm
election defeats. As Megan McArdle pointed out in her Bloomberg View column,
Obamacare took coverage away from only a small minority of Americans.
Sanderscare would take employer coverage away from tens of millions of
satisfied customers, destroy the health insurance business and levy
massive new tax hikes. This is epic social disruption.
To
think you could pass Sanderscare through a polarized Washington and in a
country deeply suspicious of government is to live in intellectual
fairyland. President Obama may have been too cautious, especially in the
Middle East, but at least he’s able to grasp the reality of the
situation.
Fourth, grace under pressure. I happen
to find it charming that Marco Rubio gets nervous on the big occasions —
that he grabs for the bottle of water, breaks out in a sweat and went
robotic in the last debate. It shows Rubio is a normal person. And I
happen to think overconfidence is one of Obama’s great flaws. But a
president has to maintain equipoise under enormous pressure. Obama has
done that, especially amid the financial crisis. After Saturday night,
this is now an open question about Rubio.
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