The White House’s Three Biggest Blunders In The Debt Ceiling Fight | The New RepublicTom Smith

Most Americans will accept a president with whom they disagree. Above all, they want two things from the occupant of the Oval Office—a core of convictions they can understand and the strength to fight for them. They will stick with that kind of president, even when results are slow to materialize. Ronald Reagan, whose leadership Obama is said to admire, avoided electoral disaster in the 1982 midterm elections, when a 10.8 percent unemployment rate could have done to his presidency what the 2010 elections did to Obama’s. Even when Reagan’s approval rating dipped below 40 percent, the people knew who he was and where he wanted to take the country, and to an extent that is surprising even in hindsight, they stuck with him. Obama has 15 months left to convince the people that he is that kind of president. The odds are getting longer, and the time is getting shorter.

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The problem with this Obama needs to lead argument, come out of the mists and reveal who he is and what he stands for, is that if he did the American people would like him and what he stands for even less than they do now. Reagan could do this because he really believed what a majority of the American people really believed and even more wanted to believe. Just being yourself only works if people wouldn't hate who you really are.