BHO and FDR

Obama has been criticized by progressives because unlike FDR, he is pragmatic rather than visionary. My sense of FDR is that he was a leader: he had a vision and he was able to rally the country to move toward that vision. He was not afraid to make sweeping changes and to call out and marginalize those that opposed him. But it seems his singular vision also led him to one of the saddest moments in US presidential history--trying to pack the Supreme Court. Although I was sympathetic to FDR's goals of trying to get his agenda enacted, the idea of the executive branch exerting that sort of pressure on a co-equal branch of the federal government was un-American and a bad, bad idea.

Obama appears much more cautious, opting for incremental change. No matter what happens, I don't see him trying to do anything analagous to packing the court. But he clearly needs to have more of a vision of what this country can be rather than constantly thinking about the limitations of the current political reality.

A leader needs to have vision to rally those around him to his cause (longer term, big picture), as well as a pragmatic streak of knowing where we are, and what the next steps are (shorter term, detailed picture). But, as I tell my trainees, it's hard to know what the next step should be if you don't know where you want to end up. As others have said, I wish Obama could channel a little more of his inner FDR and boldly stake out his vision of America, with a thriving middle class and guaranteed access to high-quality medical care.