TWIOT: Is It Impossible for a President to Succeed?

Not pictured: Superman
Photo Credit: The White House

It's almost 2012, so we all know what that means. No, not the Mayan Apocalypse, although I am looking into getting volcano insurance just in case. I'm more talking about the next Presidential election cycle, one in which the Republicans will all sling mud at each other for the right to get into a mudslinging battle with Barack Obama. Joy. I'm a huge advocate of the voting process, and I think Presidential elections are very important, but at the same time, do we overrate the responsibilities of what the President can and can't do?

I think it was most telling to me when Matt Damon came out and accused Obama of having no testes, wanting him to have done more than he did. Okay, I understand the frustration at the lack of progressive policies that came out from this term, and there were things that Obama could have done that would have allayed my own concerns about the job he did. However, my biggest turn-off, at least in the last year, was how he came out and spoke in solidarity with the protesters in the Middle East while the Occupy protesters were getting maced to silence. Folks may wonder "Yeah, but those are just words" but that's the whole point. The President of the United States is really nothing more than a glorified orator. Yeah, he (or she) can circumvent his Constitutional powers and take on some non-enumerated tasks, but other than orchestrate military action without the approval from Congress via a war declaration, what "powers" does the President really have? Signing bills into laws. And for the record, as a guy who was never the biggest Obama fan to begin with and who voted for Ralph Nader in 2008, the fact that one of the bills he signed into law, the National Defense Authorization Act, is atrocious and enough for people to vote against him en masse.

That being said, the President can technically only do what Congress puts in front of him. He can't fly around the country and legalize gay marriage, or authorize tax cuts or give people in the inner cities free gas and mortgage payments like some people think he can do. It's not how the system works. Invariably, these men (and women, although they're never elected) overpromise, and when they underdeliver, it leaves a sour taste in everyone's mouths. No one takes a step back to realize the reason they overpromise is because they're lying to everyone about what they can and cannot do as President. If the President had the powers that people think he has, he wouldn't be President, he'd be Emperor or Dictator.

That's why no matter what, unless something happens great that usually is something out of the control of the guy in the Oval Office, most sitting POTUS have low approval ratings. Of course, that would be rectified with a simple civics course. Maybe if we tempered our expectations and learned more about the system, we'd have more realistic expectation. Of course, we might also elect better candidates for all offices, but hey, baby steps.