Frank Rich Likens Obama to a Hostage, Praises Chris Christie. No, He Was Not Drunk

In his weekly op-ed column in the New York Times yesterday, Frank Rich likened President Obama to someone in the throes of Stockholm syndrome, kind of like Patty Hearst, Imus observed.
 
Laughing, Rich added, “Without the charm.”
 
Admittedly sympathetic to Obama, Rich is nonetheless distressed by his seeming lack of clarity on any issue. “It’s not even a matter of if he’s too left or too right,” Rich said. “Everything is negotiated away, and he seems to be sort of held captive…by his own political adversaries.”
 
As an example, Rich cited the shenanigans that started not long after the Republicans walloped the Democrats on Election Day, and Obama invited their leadership to the White House for a meeting.
 
“The Republicans sort of dissed him by postponing it for two weeks because they had ‘scheduling conflicts,’” Rich said. “Then they have the meeting, and Obama…does like a hostage video where he comes out and says, ‘We had a wonderful meeting, and we’re all cooperating.’”
 
Not long after, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell wrote the President a letter indicating there would be a blockade in the Senate until Republicans receive the tax cuts they want.
 
“He seems to be still persuaded that people who really don’t agree with him politically and want to stop whatever he does are somehow going to be corralled to be on his side,” Rich said. Based on an FBI article about Stockholm syndrome he read recently, Rich concluded, “Obama sees the good side of people who want to oppose him far too much.”
 
Though the President appears unfocused of late, Rich believes he did not start out that way. When Obama first took office, the country “was collapsing, and I think Obama’s kind of steeliness and focus really helped,” he said.
 
Rich contrasted the President against New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican known for his no-nonsense approach. “He’s very clear cut about where he stands, and he explains his reasons,” Rich said. “Obama used to do this, but this has sort of just vanished.”
 
No one seems able to tell if, as Imus put it, Obama is just way smarter than the rest of us and acting on information that nobody else is privy to, or, as a friend of Rich’s put it, he is simply “one of the most inept presidents of our time.”
 
It also remains elusive whether the Bush tax cuts will be allowed to expire, and Rich compared Obama’s lax position on this issue to the one he holds on whether to repeal the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell rule.
 
“It’s just one of a number of issues where he says his heart’s in the right place…and then when push comes to shove, it just doesn’t happen,” Rich said, observing that Obama has “a strange tardiness about him” that was especially evident during the debate over health care reform. “We heard what the Right felt, we heard what the Democratic base felt, but he was holding all his cards, and I think he held them too long.”
 
Something that’s not too long, according to Rich: Colin Quinn’s show “Long Story Short,” which Imus will go see on Broadway tonight. Happily, Imus chirped, “Then I’ll get home for halftime of the football game!”
 
And they say you can’t have it all.
 
-Julie Kanfer