In last Sunday’s New York Times, Drew Westen, professor of psychology at Emory University, compared Obama’s performance with president Franklin Roosevelt’s. “In similar circumstances,” Westen wrote, “F.D.R. offered Americans the promise to use the power of his office to make their lives better…. He minced no words about those who had caused [the crash]. He promised to do something no president before him had done before: to use the resources of the United States to put Americans directly to work, building the infrastructure we still rely on today.”
Westen quotes F.D.R.: “Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hatred for me – and I welcome their hatred.”
Westen contrasts this position with Obama’s preference for consent, compromise and appeasement. He attributes it to a lack of inner conviction and to electoral considerations. Though he is a psychologist, he does not mention another possible reason, which may not have occurred to him or which he thinks is taboo: Obama is black.
Obama is not a descendant of slaves, but most American blacks are. They are conditioned to avoid confrontations with whites because they know they don’t have a chance. It is not surprising that if one of them becomes president, he seeks compromise and consensus. A man with F.D.R.’s patrician background could well afford to welcome the hatred of his opponents.
Does that makes sense?
Eric Koch’s book, The Weimar Triangle, is available at Indigo-Chapters and in your local bookstore. 
FDR was also a supreme politician, loving the ambiguity, the games, the deceptions. And yes, as a patrician, or ‘Prince’, he felt entitled to rule. Rather as Mandela (a real Prince) did.
Obama is an intellectual, and has achieved more than he could have imagined by persuading people. And it’s looking like he might not make the leap in development to handle the current almost ridiculous position the US is in. It won’t be his fault if he fails – all around would fail. If he succeeds then he will definitely be able to take the credit.
One might think, metaphorically, of the Nero fiddling while Rome burned. And now, it’s not an individual, but so many who are still fiddling.
NPR’s On Point did an hour today on “The Liberal Critique of Obama”, which featured Westen. http://onpoint.wbur.org/2011/08/11/what-happened-to-obama
I say Yes, it makes perfect sense.