The Education of a President

 

Obama/Lincoln, Lincoln/Obama © Stephen Crowley 2009

 

Grab a second cup of coffee, pull out the New York Times Sunday magazine from the inserts (you are a subscriber?) and read Peter Baker’s insightful piece “The Education of a President” with nice photographs by Ashley Gilbertson. Baker writes:

“But it is possible to win the inside game and lose the outside game. In their darkest moments, White House aides wonder aloud whether it is even possible for a modern president to succeed, no matter how many bills he signs. Everything seems to conspire against the idea: an implacable opposition with little if any real interest in collaboration, a news media saturated with triviality and conflict, a culture that demands solutions yesterday, a societal cynicism that holds leadership in low regard. Some White House aides who were ready to carve a new spot on Mount Rushmore for their boss two years ago privately concede now that he cannot be another Abraham Lincoln after all. In this environment, they have increasingly concluded, it may be that every modern president is going to be, at best, average.” The rest is HERE: