Obama Needs to Become a Leader

The narrative of Obama's presidency remains vague and defined more by the events that have taken place on his watch than by his own agenda, writes The Root’s Lawrence Bobo. This is because of Obama’s professorial pursuit of what Bobo calls “the three Rs”-“responsibility, reasonableness, and doing the right thing.” He’s tried taking responsibility for big issues—health care, Afghanistan—and being reasonable with his fervid Republican opponents, but what he needs now is a “sense of moral leadership, high purpose and vision.” He needs to take a stand similar to when Reagan demanded, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” Whether he will take this moral stand on education reform, alternative-energy policy, tax breaks for the rich, or curbing the deficit is unclear, writes Bobo, but it will “be defined by less attention to David Axelrod and more focus on a clear return to the community-organizer roots and sensibility that served Obama so well during the campaign.”