Is Obama Tough Enough?
EmailIt’s a question that has been circling the politicos lately and crystallized by the National Journal. Presidential Historian Douglas Brinkley said in that article that, “Obama has created an atmosphere of no fear.” Some critics believe as president he “lacks the punch” and that his agenda is tackling too many big items, so how does the White House fends off claims that Obama is too laid-back to be vengeful. Even Saturday Night Live got into the act with an Obama-Incredible Hulk parody.
I asked the White House Senior Adviser David Axelrod, in our EXCLUSIVE interview this morning on ‘This Week’, if it’s time for the President to get tough. Axelrod said the President is, “tough enough.”
Here’s our full exchange:
STEPHANOPOULOS: Is that what the president needs to do? Is it time for him to get tough?
AXELROD: Well, look, George, I think, if the president weren't tough, we wouldn't be where we are vis-a-vis trying to deal with the economy, two wars, and some — remember what he inherited here. He walked in the door, we had the worst economy since the Great Depression. He had to take immediate steps to pull us back from what many thought might be a Great Depression. He had to sort out in Afghanistan a war where we had seven years of drift and no policy. And he passed a series of things that are going to move this country forward, from children's health care to pay equity for women, a series of things.
AXELROD: "This Congress has passed more legislation in the first term of this president than any president in our lifetime. So I think he has been plenty tough. I think people want toughness, but they also want to have thoughtful leadership. And that — and that requires reviewing these issues, thinking them through clearly, and bringing people along, and that's what he's doing."
And watch our roundtable take up the question of toughness:
- George Stephanopoulos
Santorum: Money Will Not Defeat Obama, Ideas Will 
Rick Santorum's Full Speech at CPAC 2012
I regret my vote for Obama every single day. I wish Hillary was our president.
It’s more just his ego and self-obsession, and that of his aids with him, that I find nauseating and counterproductive not just for himself but for our country.
Can he stop campaigning??? Please!!!! I find him tiring and one-note.
Posted by: lea | October 18, 2009, 11:09 am 11:09 am
I don’t know. There was that picture of him without a shirt that you news folks went bonkers over, and he looked a little buff.
Posted by: Huh | October 18, 2009, 11:20 am 11:20 am
George Will and his colleagues should go home and donate to the homeless. Then he should form a group to accept the $250 he and others are going to receive that they don’t need. Then they should return that money to the Congress to pay down the deficit. No reason for him or his colleagues to receive that money. I agree.
Posted by: Maria Sideris Chapis | October 18, 2009, 11:44 am 11:44 am
No. He’s chosen his cabinet and advisers poorly. He has consistently taken the path of least resistance. Throw in his apparent “need” to reach out to the other side even when it has been made plain to him that there will be no reciprocation and he will be remembered as a caretaker rather than the change-maker that we needed.
Posted by: jan | October 18, 2009, 11:44 am 11:44 am
I am profoundly disappointed in him. It should have been Hillary. We went from one inexperienced President to another. Per Bill Maher, we are a country of stupid people.
Posted by: Rick Roberts | October 18, 2009, 12:11 pm 12:11 pm
When will we see some of this tough, after hundreds of our young die in afganistan because we cant make a decision, either send enough troops to do the job or bring them home.
Posted by: earl | October 18, 2009, 12:21 pm 12:21 pm
Rick Roberts: I don’t think I would quote Bill Maher on anything. The old saying of, “It takes one to know one,” certainly holds true in this case.
Posted by: Lisa | October 18, 2009, 12:23 pm 12:23 pm
earl – You got it, bring em home! We are broke.
Posted by: Huh | October 18, 2009, 12:23 pm 12:23 pm
You do not want to see Obama get tough. If Obama looks weak right now, it is only because he has not gotten his health care bill through. He is obsessed with that. And why? Because it is essential to his agenda. It makes him look weak because he has to dance around other issues in the meantime. Give him his health care, and you see him clamp down hard on this nation, and you will regret you ever put this man in office. He is a master at putting on a pleasant facade.
Posted by: Wm. Scott Francis | October 18, 2009, 12:51 pm 12:51 pm
Chairman Mao would be proud
Posted by: turn to Chairman Mao for guidance | October 18, 2009, 12:58 pm 12:58 pm
I think it has become painfully obvious that Mr. Obama is way out of his league. The WH is not a church or community center where he can sway people because he is the only educated man in the room. Now that he is in the big time the lights are on and the show is quite a let down. He is a weenie in sheeps clothing and all his finger pointing and “look” talk is not cutting it.He can’t be “tough” because he is a sham and the whole world knows it now. He can have all the hissy fits he wants like a 2 year old and it won’t make a hill of beans.2012 cannot come soon enough in my opinion. What a disappointment for our hard working Americans.
Posted by: hil | October 18, 2009, 12:59 pm 12:59 pm
The present assault on the basic pillars of our freedoms will end up being for our good. The challenge to know what we believe and why people have died for that belief will wake up a sleeping America.
Sometimes it takes a generous dose of evil to wake up the good people that have been sleeping in the complacency of a growing “nanny state”. An all promising government with its $1.4 trillion deficit and a $12 trillion national debt. A government that is afraid to admit it has no plan, or hope, of mitigating that debt!
Posted by: Ed Taylor | October 18, 2009, 1:39 pm 1:39 pm
Not tough enough? Climate of No Fear?? How thuggish do you want this administration to get,Georgie? They delare war on talk radio,on Fox,on anyone who takes issue with them,and they create no fear? Go back to the woodwork,George.
Posted by: shane comeback | October 18, 2009, 1:57 pm 1:57 pm
Forget the ridiculous comments on this site Mr. President….you are the one with the intelligence to get the us out of this mess right now and you are doing a great job….how soon people forget about the people that put us into this mess to begin with.
Bill maher is correct….this is a country of stupid people who want immediate gratification and are interested in their own selfish needs.
We have big problems that cannot be solved immediately as any 2 year old would know.
Good job so far Mr. President….keep going.
Posted by: karen | October 18, 2009, 1:57 pm 1:57 pm
On the domestic front, Obama does not have to be tough, because he has people who will do that dirty work for him behind the scenes and frighteningly, it has been pretty effective for him. I don’t think that approach will work when it comes to foreign relations.
Posted by: CAM | October 18, 2009, 2:13 pm 2:13 pm
This is not a REAL President. It’s an empty suit.
Posted by: Kara | October 18, 2009, 2:34 pm 2:34 pm
The only complaints I’ve heard of ‘not tough enough’ are from the far left, who may have been confused into thinking Obama is a liberal by the petulant whining by the Right. Obama is approaching the job as one of doing what’s best for America, not as a personal sport. So far, I’m satisfied with his approach and his results. He’s not a historically great president, but he is a very welcome return to competence after the 8 year Bush disaster the Republicans foisted on us.
Posted by: jhw539 | October 18, 2009, 2:38 pm 2:38 pm
karen “this is a country of stupid people who want immediate gratification”
I agree with the stupid people part, but immediate gratification needs to be followed by without working for it. Everybody wants the government to take care of them without looking into the fact that the government has bankrupted us beyond belief, and they have been complicate in stealing tax payer dollars to prop up failing institutions only to make these banks bigger than before. What a mess. Hopefully Obama starts to get it, but I don’t have that much faith in him at this point. Sure let me down on the war front.
Posted by: Huh | October 18, 2009, 2:53 pm 2:53 pm
George I dont think being tough enough is the issue. Bad decisions and policies no matter how tough you are will never work. And I believe with the other blog his arrorgance is a turnoff to everyone.
Posted by: randy | October 18, 2009, 3:43 pm 3:43 pm
Bill Mahrer really thinks highly of the American People. Wow, I think he is an idiot. Many people who voted for Obama are very dissapointed with him. They believe they were misled in many ways. We may have been lied to with regard to taxes, the economy, and other issues. The American People are smart, and yes, they will elect the next President of the U.S. If he doesn’t move towards the center, he’s lost the independent voters and even democrats who had faith in him. Whether he is too weak or not will play out in the next year. If he doesn’t change, his flaws will continue to come out!!
Posted by: ClaimAmericaBack | October 18, 2009, 3:48 pm 3:48 pm
Did we ever get these Julius Caesar like photos of George Bush ? I mean, look at the low camera angle, the Emperor scowling off into space after having given “The Word” no doubt. God like…or is it Hitler like ?
Posted by: Ron | October 18, 2009, 4:20 pm 4:20 pm
STEFFY is, let us remember, a Clinton hack and a Liberal from the word “go”.
Posted by: Ron | October 18, 2009, 4:21 pm 4:21 pm
Karen…..I Agree
Posted by: craigspr | October 18, 2009, 6:48 pm 6:48 pm
Not tough enuff? Try not smart enough or moral enough to be leader. IMpeach the moron and crook Obama.
Posted by: talkhooloo | October 18, 2009, 8:27 pm 8:27 pm
If he is so competent, why isn’t the government fully staffed? There are about five people running the Treasury Department and it should be twenty.
Posted by: ebrown | October 18, 2009, 8:37 pm 8:37 pm
It was the WH communication director, Anita Dunn, a Mao admirer, who initiated the attack on Foxnews for being a tool of Republican. David Axelrod should know that the function of a news media is not only to report the news, but also to provide the analysis of the news and the political system. He has no right to limit the new media to reporting news only without giving any analysis. Is he also an admirer of Mao and his party,who operated with one party rule without free speech from oppositions ?
Posted by: austin | October 19, 2009, 12:19 am 12:19 am
He must be a real tough guy, his hottest admirers include Hugo Chavez, Moammar Khadafy, King Abdullah, etc…Its a shame Ahmedinijad isn’t too fond of him anymore. I wonder what happened in their relationship…
Posted by: hangten777 | October 19, 2009, 1:39 am 1:39 am
It reminds me of a story on the bible… the moment the Jews were led by Moses out of slavery and Egypt they started moaning and whining their whole way,Even demanding to go back to their slavery and egypt ..well i guess americans are like that ..it seems like the people are confused by al the misinformation and all the ignorant and hostile attack on the president…it seems you forget really soon America!! b/se it has become a nation of ignorance and evil
Posted by: fash | October 19, 2009, 4:21 am 4:21 am
The party is over for the big “O”… we are now seeing we elected a guy who is woefully unprepared for the job… Being “President” means leadership, not handing off Health care to Pelosi and Reid, being “President” does not mean flying around the world apologizing for the USA, being “President” means the security and well being of the USA first, and the rest of the world second. Enough of the liberal apologists, PC police, and spend spend spend policies.. 2010 can’t come soon enough.
Posted by: mike | October 19, 2009, 8:00 am 8:00 am
Tough just wait till they try to abolish the first amendment, looks like they are starting FOX NEWS IS NOT A NEWS ORGANIZATION what a bunch of yaa.
Posted by: earl | October 19, 2009, 8:28 am 8:28 am
Obama is so far from being tough. I understand that the economy won’t be fixed in a day. He needs to make a statement about what is going on in afghanistan about what his hopes are, thoughts, etc. One thing that America does not hear about is the good that goes on with the wars. All the media tells us is what is bad about it all and how troops are dying. So far I’ve seen no good thoughts and opinions come from him.
Posted by: sammy | October 19, 2009, 5:44 pm 5:44 pm
Karen, doing a good job????????????????
Name 1 thing Obama has accomplished?
Don’t make me laugh.
Posted by: Logan | October 19, 2009, 6:52 pm 6:52 pm
NO!!!!!I believe that his weak , apologetic & appeasement attitude has made himself and our nation appear weak. He is nothing more than a modern day “Neville chamberlain”!!
Posted by: Dr342 | October 19, 2009, 7:34 pm 7:34 pm
I am Canadian, and have no direct connection with American politics at all. But, as an impartial third party observer…I really have to give my head a shake when I read these comments.
It’s no wonder the rest of the world laughs behind America’s back…you are all such morons! Obama is the best thing that has happened to your country in decades, and you are all too stupid to know you did the right thing in electing him! I mean, you basically did the right thing by mistake, cause your too stupid to have done it on purpose. If Obama ever gets sick of babysitting you stupid American kiddies, he can come to Canada and lead a people that would appreciate his leadership and intelligent approach.
Posted by: Ryan | October 22, 2009, 5:23 pm 5:23 pm