We ask that question in today's title of the MPR, but Politico has a story today that says flatly that President Obama is in the doldrums right now.
The story surfaces as Obama is scheduled today to give a much anticipated speech on a strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, something that he mentioned during his inaugural speech six months ago but has yet to act upon. As details have leaked out about what he's attempting to do, he's getting pushback from coal producing states like West Virginia, where Democratic Senator Joe Manchin is "unreasonable."
But the question underneath is, has the president lost focus of his presidency just a half-year into his 2nd four-year term? Call them scandals or distractions, there's been a lot going on over the past month that was never on the White House's agenda, and that was before anybody had ever heard of Edward Snowden. If you'll recall, George W. Bush's 2nd four-year term started slow and was over by the end of 2005 (things like Katrina, Harriet Myers and the privatization of Social Security led to his popularity waning). Obama's poll numbers aren't in free fall yet, but it's time for him to change the agenda by leading out of it. Is he up for it?
The biggest story yesterday was the question of where the hell NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden is actually at. The novelty of his whereabouts we predict will wane if there's no change in his situation, but there's no question that this has also brought back Wikileaks in a big way. CL contributor Terence Smith listened to Julian Assange on a conference call talk about how he is helping Snowden get political asylum in Ecuador.
Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn led a contingent of local political and business leaders on a business trip to Manhattan last week, where they said they just wanted to say "thanks" to the various financial and insurance companies who've taken up roots in Hillsborough County over the years.
And CL attended New Yorker journalist George Packer's visit to Tampa's Oxford Exchange last Friday night, talking about his new best-seller The Unwinding to an audience that included several figures whose lives are prominently on display in his tome.
This article appears in Jun 20-26, 2013.