The Ghost of Presidents Past

Watching President Obama yield the lectern to former President Clinton last Thursday was both odd and telling. The move, clearly an effort to sell wary Democrats on President Obama’s tax compromise, may have sounded good at the tail end of a 3 a.m. staff meeting. But in practice, it played like a Hail Mary pass designed to spin the widespread public perception that the President recently caved on tax negotiations with the GOP.

I can see how bringing out the still-popular ex-president to sell a pragmatic pivot to the center, a move one could easily imagine President Clinton having made himself, would have come up in a strategy session. But the fact that it actually happened genuinely surprises me. For starters, President Obama is continuously criticized (sometimes unfairly) for a complete lack of experience. Reagan never handed the keys to Nixon, nor Clinton to Carter, and even W. never brought Daddy in to close out the show.

What may have been less foreseen by President Obama’s team, however, was the stark contrast in what the military calls command presence. Seeing President Clinton in front of the microphone, deftly parrying the tough questions of the White House Press Corps, I couldn’t help but wish that the former Arkansas governor was doing more than consulting in these harrowing economical times.

When President Obama kind of awkwardly excused himself, the press corps’ immediate shift in tone spoke volumes in terms of what those closest to the action really wish to know – why is this guy so afraid of Republicans who are going to do what they are going to do regardless of his policies – namely, work hard to get him voted out of office.

For his part, Clinton worked the room like a pro, and if he didn’t completely sell the President’s deal, he at least convinced those listening that he himself genuinely supported it. Obama, who had left for a Christmas party when the press conference finally ended, probably still didn’t gain any ground in the court of public opinion. Presidents are leaders and Commanders in Chief. Once in the oval office, as President Truman noted, the buck must stop with them.

Living former presidents are a rare resource and there is wisdom in employing them, but President Obama should think long and hard before ever again considering yielding a stage to the last American President to rule over an era of peace and prosperity. Nostalgia is a double edge sword and as such, reminding people of the good old days is the sole domain of those out of power – not in.