This week the op-ed columns have been full of outrage at the do-nothing presidency.<\/p>\n
In National Review Online<\/em>, Victor Davis Hanson writes of \u201cObama as Hamlet,\u201d indecisive in his approach to the uprisings across the Arab world.<\/p>\n In the Washington Examiner<\/em>, Michael Barone says the president is still following his practice in the Illinois legislature and voting \u201cpresent\u201d on great issues ranging from the budget to Libya.<\/p>\n At the Washington Post,<\/em> Charles Krauthammer heaps scorn on the administration\u2019s claim that Social Security is not \u201cbroke.\u201d<\/p>\n And on the Wall Street Journal<\/em> editorial page, Alaska governor Sean Parnell, a Republican, decries the Obama Administration\u2019s continued unwillingness to allow any new drilling for oil anywhere in the United States, despite $100-plus a barrel prices going to some of the world\u2019s worst actors.<\/p>\n But as everyone in Washington will tell you, inaction IS action. \u00a0While committing himself to nothing more than \u201cconversations\u201d on this issue and that, the president is making a clear commitment. \u00a0Despite all the campaign talk (it was long, long ago and far, far away) of hope and change, Barack Obama is now a status quo president, working directly or indirectly to prevent change on almost every front. \u00a0Inaction is one of his most effective tools.<\/p>\n Consider this rundown:<\/p>\n Social Security, Medicare, and the rest of the budget<\/strong>: Likewise, the president has nothing of substance to propose about cutting discretionary spending. After massive emergency budget increases in his first two years, he now says we should freeze spending in place, not return it to prior levels, even in the out years.<\/p>\n And his approach to Medicare has been to pile even greater costs into it through last year\u2019s health overhaul legislation.<\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t take a political savant to see what\u2019s going on here.<\/p>\n Beginning two weeks ago, as Republicans gained traction in budget battles ranging from the State House in Madison, Wisconsin, to Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, Democratic Party leaders, left wing columnists and the labor unions mounted what was almost certainly a carefully coordinated counter-offensive.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are not broke\u201d was their cry. \u00a0Chances are somebody had handed around focus group results that told them to rally around this phrase, which they did with admirable message discipline, if not such admirable concern for the nation\u2019s long-term health.<\/p>\n But almost any serious move towards budget cutting represents a loss for the president and his political entourage. \u00a0Everyplace they might cut \u2013 except defense, where the knives are out \u2013 would wound one <\/strong>group of presidential backers or another.<\/p>\n The administration has nothing to gain from a single non-defense penny coming out of the budget. \u00a0So denial, dismissal and delay serve the president\u2019s purpose. \u00a0He is taking action \u2013 and at the moment he appears to be winning.<\/p>\n Energy<\/strong>: The simple fact is that the president\u2019s backers will never acquiesce to any substantial solution. At one time they loved ethanol. Federal subsidies brought it into mainstream use. \u00a0Now the same crew that loved the corn derivative reviles it. \u00a0If wind and solar should become prominent, look for this crowd to turn on them, too.<\/p>\n So again, the president is taking what he surely sees as his best available action on energy by not acting.<\/p>\n Libya and the Middle East<\/strong>: Everywhere the story is the same. \u00a0The president is defending ground that he long ago staked out. \u00a0Inaction is the most powerful action he can take just now.<\/p>\n You may not like his policies, but don\u2019t get confused. \u00a0The man is not voting present, and he is not an indecisive Hamlet. \u00a0He has been taking clear actions \u2013 and for the most part, he has been getting the results he wants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This week the op-ed columns have been full of outrage at the do-nothing presidency. In National Review Online, Victor Davis Hanson writes of \u201cObama as Hamlet,\u201d indecisive in his approach to the uprisings across the Arab world. 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\nYes, as Krauthammer points out, fixing Social Security would be easy. \u00a0A retirement age increase here, a move from wage to price indexing there, a bit of means testing thrown in and poof, job done. \u00a0Yet amazingly, incomprehensibly, the Administration through its budget director Jack Lew recently announced that there is no problem.<\/p>\n
\nAddressing the U.S. energy problem is a loser on every front for the president. \u00a0Should we resume drilling in the Gulf or anywhere else in the nation? \u00a0Every hole in the ground means lost votes in the environmental world. \u00a0The entire point of talking about renewables like wind and solar all these years has been that they allow Mr. Obama to sound as though he is ready for action, but never to require him to effectively act.<\/p>\n
\nThe president\u2019s reset button in the Middle East basically meant he was not going to give heartburn to established regimes, no matter how loathsome. \u00a0It was only with crowds day after day in the streets of Cairo and the Egyptian military abandoning President Mubarak that the administration came late to the Egyptian democracy party. \u00a0Yes, caution was appropriate here. \u00a0But elsewhere in the Middle East, the administration\u2019s status quo stance remains, including, effectively in Libya. \u00a0To take another course would jeopardize the president\u2019s liberal internationalist base, a key part of his anti-Iraq-War nominating coalition in 2008 and surely high in his mind again next year.<\/p>\n