Newtonian physics and the Obama Presidency

Anyone who every took a course in physics remembers Newton’s third law of motion: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. It appears that our brain understands this quite well, which is why there is a psychological analogue of this principle that every one of us has experienced. The higher up you go – the more intense the experience of joy/happiness/elation - the further down you fall as the intensity of the experience quickly metabolizes through your nervous system. And nobody understands this more clearly at this moment in time than our President as he struggles to be a great leader.

Barack Obama came into office riding the historic wave of being the first Afro-American President, with CHANGE as his battle cry. He was confident, charismatic, intelligent and articulate. He was following a President who had none of these qualities and whose Presidency had failed miserably. From the outset it appeared as if his success would be both immediate and inevitable. Yet, one year later, 54% of the electorate disapproves of his performance. What happened and why?

We can spend a lot of time talking about issues and policy, the difficult Presidential learning curve and the continuing criticism of the conservative right, but more than anything else, the primary reason he’s struggling is that he started out way to high. When he took the oath of office it felt more like a coronation than an inauguration. The excitement and elation over his election created impossible expectations. He was anointed a savior before having done a single thing. And when he was given the Nobel Peace Prize – something he clearly didn’t deserve – that pretty much sealed the deal for his current predicament. All the substantive issues-the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the economic woes and his policy initiatives-are secondary to the “physics” of his Presidency. The higher up you start, the further down you fall.

So what are we to make of all this? Does this mean Barack Obama was not meant to be a competent President nor a great leader? Does this mean the events of his first year in office presage the rest of his Presidency? Or, does it simply mean that his initial frustrations and failures had to happen in order for him to experience the reality of what the Presidency was all about. Success is only fully appreciated when you’ve earned it. Obama hadn’t failed before and truly believed everything that had carried him to victory during the election would continue unencumbered as President. He was wrong. But sometimes being wrong is a really good thing.

Now we’ll find out whether he can do this job well. Now we’ll see whether the skills he displayed as a candidate can merge with the skills he is first developing as a leader so that the President this country needs will slowly emerge over the next two years. For there will inevitably be a moment in time – some extraordinarily difficult crisis that every President eventually faces – which will force him into psychological places he has never experienced and stretch him to his limits. Then, and only then, will we know whether Barack Obama is bound for greatness.