Kansas City News Blog

If a combination of national crisis and personal character define a transformational president, Barack Obama is squandering his historic circumstances by being, well, too nice.

That was the mostly disappointed analysis from three political and media experts who visited Kansas City for the Harry S. Truman Library Institute's third annual "Forum on the Presidency." At last night's discussion about "Presidential Leadership in Transformational Times," Robert Kuttner best summed up the panel's perspective.

Photo by Nicole Reinertson

from left: Timothy Naftali, Robert Kuttner, Arianna Huffington, Joseph Nye

​"He'll be either the next [Herbert] Hoover or the next [Franklin D.] Roosevelt because of the crises he faces," said the author, columnist and co-founder of The American Prospect.

At this point, Kuttner and his fellow panelists aren't convinced Obama will be the latter.

Kuttner, author of Obama's Challenge: America's Economic Crisis and the Power of a Transformative Presidency, shared the stage with two other heavy-hitters. Arianna Huffington, editor and founder of the influential Huffington Post, and Timothy Naftali, director of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum.

All three agreed on Obama's major flaw: giving up too much in a futile attempt to make everyone happy.

Photo by Nicole Reinertson

Robert Kuttner

​Kuttner pointed out that Obama is the only president with "community organizer" on his resume -- and that experience isn't necessarily serving him well. In facing dramatic economic challenges, Obama has been stranding himself in the middle of the road. "This man is defined by his desire to bridge differences," he said of the president. "But in this kind of crisis, prematurely seeking consensus is not helpful."

Huffington accused Obama of giving up too much too fast in the "health-care debacle." "He sees himself as a conciliator," she said. "If he could bring in [former Republican Alaska governor] Sarah Palin, that would be really good." The shot at the notorious hockey mom got a laugh from the crowd. But Huffington had a serious point: Obama needs to stop worrying about left and right and start focusing on right and wrong. "It's about recognizing that you're never going to bring everyone along," she said. "There's always going to be the 20 percent that think Fox News is fair and balanced."

Photo by Nicole Reinertson

Timothy Naftali

​Naftali, an animated speaker who perched on the edge of his chair as if about to leap forward, said candidates rarely admit that being a president is a crash course in flexility and adjustment. "But a transformational president has the ability to learn on the job," he said. Kuttner and Huffington suggested that Obama hasn't yet learned how to harness the huge grassroots movement that propelled him to office.

Huffington, who knows a little bit about harnessing the power of the Internet, said it's not a matter of building an audience -- Obama's Organizing for America already has 13 million e-mail addresses -- but figuring out what to say. "He has not had a clear message," she said of Obama. "You can't say, 'Go out and knock on doors and pass health care.' Which health care?"

And, as Obama plays Mr. Nice Guy in Washington D.C., the panelists cautioned, the current of public opinion is turning and threatening to pull under the hopeful president. Main Street America is suffering, Kuttner said, and Democrats have ceded the outrage to pundits like Rush Limbaugh. "Obama can either be the person he was as a candidate and channel that anger, or he will become the target of it," he said.

Photo by Nicole Reinertson

Arianna Huffington

​Yes, the group acknowledged, it's early in the game and Obama already has a Nobel Peace Prize under his belt. But being a transformational president is all about grasping and riding all available momentum from day one. Right now, Huffington said, Obama is in peril of losing the very thing that set him up to be great: the swell of new voters he brought into the fold during the campaign.

"The disillusionment is spreading very fast," she said.