Tone Deaf Presidents
By
Leonard Zwelling
The news shows are aglow with the apology from the White
House for not having sent some sort of meaningful delegation to Paris yesterday. And well they should be.
As I pointed out, the French, despite their occasional
arrogance and overwhelming self-importance, have stood by the United States
since the Revolution and we owe them some consideration. If the POTUS (Putz of
the US) doesn’t want to, go send the wife. Send the Clintons. Send Biden. Who
does funerals like Biden? No one. But, no. They will send Kerry masquerading as
Lurch the Butler on Thursday. Just in time.
Leadership is an elusive quality. Most people don’t have it.
It is a gritty combination of vision and will and a whole lot of timing. Thus,
it requires empathy. No one does empathy better than Bill Clinton. For God sake
send him, Hillary, George Bush 43 and Jimmy Carter and actually look like a
mensch.
Obama is just emotionally and sensitively tone deaf. In
short, he doesn’t get it, never has and never will. And those surrounding him can’t carry a tune in a bucket. Personally I would fire Kerry and his entire foreign policy team immediately.
Which brings me to my second favorite President, Ron
DePinho. Don’t send him to France. He’ll take one look at the Eiffel Tower and
think it’s another Moon Shot. And surely don’t send DePinho’s wife, she’ll
sweep down the Champs Elysee and max out the MD Anderson platinum card on
clothes and couches.
Both Mr. Obama and Dr. DePinho suffer from a similar defect.
They have no empathy. Whether either is somewhere along the autistic spectrum I
will leave to a professional analyst, but politically they just can’t seem to
get it right. They say stupid things (“curing cancer” vs. “if you like the
insurance you have you can keep it”). They come off disingenuously. They are
less about no drama than no sense of humor. Neither can effectively tell a joke
although frequently each appears to be one.
The good news on Obama is that we only have to deal with him
for another two years. Guaranteed.
Dr. DePinho is another story. I suggest shortening the time.
Considerably and soon.
