The Obama trust deficit

With the midterm elections just two weeks away, President Obama should reflect soberly on his approval ratings, the lowest of his presidency, which indicate a trust deficit that will preclude any meaningful accomplishments in his closing two years in the White House.

He assured us during the Obamacare debate, “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.” Whether or not he knew this would not be true, a leader should not promise things he has reason to believe he can’t deliver.

He assured us there was “not a smidgen” of corruption at the IRS, and this while a congressional investigation was underway. When we learned about curiously timed mass disappearances of sensitive emails from the hard drives of key players, fairly obvious signs of a cover-up, many wondered why the president was so glibly unconcerned.

The extraordinary amount of time he spends at fundraisers is unsettling, especially given the deluge of alarming developments at home and abroad. We understand the president’s role in raising money for electing Democrats, and we are assured that the president is always on the job. Air Force One is a flying White House. Yet it’s not the White House and it’s clear what his primary activity is on these frequent jaunts.

He plays a lot of golf. There’s nothing wrong with a president relaxing on fairways and greens, but when he made a solemn announcement about ISIS after it beheaded two Americans and within five minutes was photographed laughing with buddies in a golf cart, what were people to conclude? Indifference to the matters he just addressed? He regretted the poor “optics” that he generated, but the public disquiet was over more than just how this quick transition to fun looked.

The general impression of incompetence hasn’t helped him. The Obamacare rollout was inexcusably disastrous. It was weeks before he paid any attention to the VA hospital scandal. ISIS had swallowed half of Iraq before that threat from overseas made it onto his to-do list. Even the collapse of Secret Service effectiveness around him has been beyond his grasp. Perhaps he’s just not that interested in most of what governing requires. He took us to war, then pursued it half-heartedly. When he talks to us at all, he speaks coldly to his teleprompter, not from the heart to the people under his care.

And now Ebola, a highly contagious and deadly virus from overseas. The president asks us to trust him and the institutions he leads, telling us, “I am absolutely confident that we can prevent a serious outbreak here in the United States.” Some people will always trust him. Others never will. But much of the Great Middle has lost confidence in his confidence. So this begs the question: When he appoints a political operative as Ebola czar, making the Great Middle even more anxious, is he subordinating public safety to political calculations?

Leadership is largely about trust, but trust is fragile. Poor leadership destroys trust, and a serious trust deficit prevents any effective leadership. Until the president sees his popularity problem as a trust problem of his own making, the only progress he will make in the next two years will be in lowering his golf score.