ABSTRACT
As President Obama neared the end of his first term, claims that he had failed as president were plentiful. The accusation came not just from Republicans eager to evict him from office, but from disappointed Democrats and a public frustrated with a recalcitrant economy. Explanations of the apparent failure included poor leadership skills, poor policy choices and misplaced priorities. In the preceding chapter, George Edwards raises a more considered explanation, that of strategic incompetence. He portrays an administration adopting flawed strategies derived both from misreadings of governing context and from misplaced faith in their chosen leadership strategies. He argues that the administration believed that the public, including some Republicans, would support Obama’s legislative proposals because of the crises of 2008 and the president’s rhetoric. Edwards proves that this support was not forthcoming. He also argues that the administration pursued bipartisanship believing that some Republican members of Congress would be persuaded to support Obama’s proposals. Edwards shows that those legislators remained loyal to their party and explains why. He argues that the administration believed in an ‘advancing tide’ (or momentum) theory of presidential success, by which one legislative success would create more favourable contexts for further proposals. Edwards outlines good reasons to doubt such a theory. Finally, he argues that the administration, labouring under these delusions, adopted a comprehensive legislative agenda which, if strategic reality had been acknowledged, would have been recognized as impractical. This strategic naïveté is seen to have contributed to legislative failures, the 2010 midterm results and weakening of the administration’s governing position. For Edwards, the lesson to draw from Obama’s first two years is that presidencies cannot create their own possibilities, but must facilitate change within relatively narrow boundaries set by election results, public sentiment and both partisanship and ideology within Congress.
