We were running a little consulting company, and one of our clients was from a wealthy family. My wife asked me about that client, "What has he actually done himself?" that is, that he didn't mostly get just handed to him from his position in the wealth and power of his family?
That was a good question. Prescient. Indeed, when he started making decisions really on his own, he made just awful decisions and lost again and again, in total a bundle, a big fraction of his share of the family's wealth. Not unexpected: The great American novel is rags to rags in three generations!
Okay, look at Ohama: What has he actually done besides have several smart and/or wealthy people help him ride a wave to get elected?
From what I can see, generally his approach is when there is an issue in the news, have his writers formulate some cliches on the issue, mouth the cliches, and then do nothing or nothing significant and wait until the MSM, etc. forget about the issue.
In one step more detail, he has in mind a coalition -- that's one role of a politician, to form a winning coalition. So, e.g., one of the groups he wants in his coalition are the greenies. So, back early in 2008 he gave an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle where he said that his idea was to have carbon "cap and trade" and slowly "ratchet up" the standards until the coal fired electric generating plants were "bankrupt". When I read that, I went into orbit somewhere in the outer planets before returning to earth. Why? Easy enough to find in Department of Energy reports was that then 49% of all of our electric power and, as I recall, 23% of all our energy was coming from coal. So, in simple, stark terms, his "bankrupt", taken literally, would do more damage to the US economy than Hitler, Stalin, and Mao ever hoped. And Obama admitted the effect, that electric rates would "skyrocket".
But eventually I understood that I had gotten all excited over next to nothing: Yes, apparently some old coal fired plants have been shut down -- a good report would be of interest but I don't have a reference to one. But electric rates have not gone up like a "skyrocket". I doubt that the coal plant shutdowns have amounted to much. Indeed, Buffett recently bought Burlington Northern Railroad which is big in hauling coal to coal plants. So, no doubt Buffett took Obama's SF Chronicle interview as, to quote the movie All the President's Men, "total BS".
So, what the heck did he do? Well, he got some greenies all happy for a while and likely got some political donations. With the happy greenies, he got freedom to aim some of the TARP II and stimulus money (supposedly $92 billion and later another $45 billion) to green projects that likely resulted in some political power and campaign donations.
Big, huge waste, right? Well, yes, but maybe not totally useless: Heck in WWII we got out of The Great Depression in about 90 days by pouring money into guns and bullets that were junk by 1945 (suddenly had 1-3 jobs for everyone who could work, women included, especially if they could learn to use a rivet gun). So, maybe pouring $92 billion plus $45 billion into projects that might, unfortunately, be just junk soon enough might help get the economy going, e.g., as that money soon gets spent for the usual things -- food, clothing, shelter, transportation, medical care, education, .... Or, it was like the helicopter solution -- fly over the US and drop money until the economy is going again.
Maybe the greenies are less than 20% of the population. So, what about the 80+% of the population not greenies who don't want to see 49% of our electric utility industry destroyed? Well, apparently that 80+% just didn't pay attention to the Obama greenie remarks and otherwise didn't take him seriously. And one step more, as soon as shutting down our electric power started to pinch, people would scream bloody murder and the situation would be turned around.
So, net, curiously, the 20-% get all excited and contribute to a coalition long enough to win an election; the 80+% mostly pay no attention; and soon enough everyone forgets about the issue.
So, can build a coalition, say, long enough to get elected: (1) Pick a list of controversial issues and, for each, pick a small group of highly concerned citizens. (2) In some speeches, feed each group some radical raw meat cliches that they will really like. (3) In reality, do next to nothing or nothing on the cliches. (4) Let time pass, new issues dominate the news, and the old issues fade into the background.
Then what about the real work? (1) Wait until others propose solutions. (2) Wait until some such solutions get some traction. (3a) If the solution is really popular in the country, then support it. (3b) If the solution is just to be implemented in the Executive Branch, then let it but don't publicly support it; if the solution flops, blame the lower level people who implemented it; if the solution is successful, take credit.
But, mostly don't actually have a vision and push it and bet own political capital on it.
If Obama has a vision, then my guess is that he just wants as much more money and power in DC as he can bring there so that DC can take the US by the horns and lead it somewhere, say, to social justice. Otherwise he gets time to work on his golf game and jump shot.
What's wrong? He's not really leading. He's not really out in front with solutions. He mostly is just letting things happen from others and avoiding being close enough to get blamed. So, there's not much coordination. Mostly he's avoiding blame.
Why don't people notice what he's doing? Because things, especially the economy and wars, are not bad enough for people to be interrupting the rest of their lives to raise hell insisting on something better. And, people do pay a lot of attention to the MSM, and the MSM has a very short attention span.
E.g., for the Benghazi controversy? The NSA controversy pushed that out of the headlines. For the NSA controversy? Issue cliches and otherwise let Clapper, General Alexander, and Biden meet the public. For Snowden, mostly just f'get about him.
Back to the golf game and jump shot.
Or, "How to be President without Really Trying". Works as long as the voters put up with it and there's no crisis that demands more.
Crisis? What about hurricane Sandy? As at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Sandy
So, with hurricane Katrina, W got excoriated, eviscerated, drawn, quartered, etc. With hurricane Sandy Governor Christie got some publicity, Mayor Bloomberg was busy, but Obama got no blame. Cute.