Is presidential "greatness" now disallowed?

Greg Sargent generously characterizes David Brooks' morning flimflam as "a good faith effort to describe what he’d like Obama to do to change things," which "boils down to this," in Brooks' words:

[Obama would] transform the sequester fight by changing the categories that undergird it. He’d possess the primary ingredient of political greatness: imagination. The great presidents, like Teddy Roosevelt, see situations differently. They ask different questions. History pivots around their terms.

I confess a romanticized fondness for Brooks' "great man" theory of the presidency, notwithstanding that virtually every critical examination of it renders friendly observers such as yours truly a bit shaken. Because "great presidents," like T.R. and Lincoln and the second Roosevelt, were in reality "lucky" enough to be swept up in the current of transcendent and often cataclysmic historical forces already in play. (It should go without noting that these same men who possessed the extraordinary leadership abilities to attain this nation's highest office would have also possessed the same leadership abilities to confront their unique challenges wisely. Nonetheless presidential luck--however grimly or bloodily manifested, from great depressions to world and civil wars--remained luck in the sense of the inescapably and impersonally driven.)

Yet T.R., Lincoln & Co.--however grimly severe the partisanship of their ages--presided not in the seeming ossification of 21st-century American politics. And this passage, from a NY Times presidential profile of October, 2010, has haunted me ever since:

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.

Put another way, true presidential greatness is perhaps now inadmissible, since it could hurt the opposition's feelings. Politics is becoming that petty.

Comments

[Robert Lipscomb]

This looks more and more like one of those historic situations where equal forces build up over time with no action, creating an expection of no future action. Then, something happens; a spark, a trigger, ... a whatever. Suddenly, there is a chain reaction.

[Turgidson]

I continue to think, absent a huge scandal or massive foreign policy failure, Obama will land somewhere in the near-great to great portion of the presidential rankings. Once the dust has settled on his presidency and a solid minority of the country is no longer being daily told that they must hate this evil, socialist, illegitmate Chicago gangster who is both too stupid to read without a teleprompter but also so brilliantly devious as to mastermind a plan to illegitimately occupy the presidency as a Kenyan - a plot that began before his birth - man with every fiber of their being, and we look back dispassionately at his center-left governance and his mostly successful efforts to create a soft landing from our economic free-fall, expand human rights, restore our standing in world affairs, and just generally be as high-quality a person as we're ever likely to see ascend to the presidency...he has been far from perfect, but he's done quite a bit of good for this country and hopefully isn't done quite yet.

Once people can look back on it all with the benefit of hindsight and without the rancor of the partisan climate we're in, I think he'll have a fairly lofty status. I do agree, however, that the scorched earth nature of politics today as well as the media's complete and utter uselessness in reporting what is actually happening, is making it harder for the president to pursue a goal of greatness. Much harder.

[Robert Lipscomb]

@Turgidson: On a similar note, I reject the meme tnhat Obama will be a lame duck in six to ten months.

I agree with PM's ongoing sentiment that Boehner and McConnel are dedicated to the do-nothing option, but the Tea Party is not. The Tea Party is spoiling for a fight, and they want to fight Obama - until he is out of office. So, Obama will remain engaged and relevent until he is out of office.

[RT]

The fact remains that President Obama is the most popular -- and most trusted -- national politician. It looks like he's going to work that for all of his second term.

[Jaylemeux]

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