Boredom and the Presidency

I came across a very interesting post on the president by a un-named political insider.  Trusting un-named sources is always a tricky thing, but I found this to be interesting nonetheless.  This person is supposedly someone who worked not only on the campaign but also on the transition team. 

Almost immediately. Obama loved to campaign. He clearly didn’t like the work of being President though, and that attitude was felt by the entire White House staff within weeks after the inauguration. Obama the tireless, hard working candidate became a very tepid personality to us. And the few news stories that did come out against him were the only things he seemed to care about. He absolutely obsesses over Fox News. For being so successful, Barack Obama is incredibly thin-skinned. He takes everything very personally.

I don't think it is a stretch to call Obama thin-skinned.  We all see that he doesn't take criticism very well and his administration's war with Fox News is very well documented. 

Well, he takes his meetings just like any other president would, though even then, he seems to lack a certain focus and on a few occasions, actually leaves with the directive that be given a summary of the meeting at a later date. I hear he plays a lot of golf, and watches a lot of television – ESPN mainly. I’ll tell you this – if you want to see President Obama get excited about a conversation, turn it to sports. That gets him interested. You start talking about Congress, or some policy, and he just kinda turns off. It’s really very strange. I mean, we were all led to believe that this guy was some kind of intellectual giant, right? Ivy League and all that. Well, that is not what I saw. Barack Obama doesn’t have a whole lot of intellectual curiosity. When he is off script, he is what I call a real “slow talker”. Lots of ummms, and lots of time in between answers where you can almost see the little wheel in his head turning very slowly. I am not going to say the president is a dumb man, because he is not, but yeah, there was a definite letdown when you actually hear him talking without the script.

Again this could very well be someone with an agenda or an ax to grind, but it certainly does explain a few things.  Obama was very slow to meet with the BP after the oil rig explosion, and Gov. Brewer after the passing of the immigration law was passed. 

He is also painting a picture of a marriage that is in trouble.  Which again may explain why the FLOTUS was running around Spain instead of spending his birthday with him.  I seem to remember hearing Michelle Obama talk about marriage struggles when he first entered into political life. 

Ok, look, just like any other marriage, folks have issues. The Obamas are no different, except of course they are very high profile. I was told they were having issues before the campaign, and they have even more issues now. Maybe that is why Obama seems so detached – not so much the stress of the White House, but the stress of personal issues. I can certainly relate to that kind of situation.

Read the entire article here.