The Lonely Guy

Vanity Fair writer Todd Purdum on Barack Obama:

He may be the biggest presidential paradox since Thomas Jefferson, the slaveholder who wrote the Declaration of Independence: a community organizer who works alone.

The biggest Presidential failure in our lifetime was Richard Nixon, another lonely guy. According to political reporter Richard Reeves, Nixon wrote memos to himself throughout his Presidency:

Nixon waited until late at night to pen these memos to himself. He did so when he was alone in his office, alone in the Lincoln bedroom, alone at Camp David, or alone across the street in his monastic hideaway in the Old Executive Office building--always alone, almost always in the dark, and sometimes, even in August, with a fire blazing.

Like Richard Nixon, Barack Obama seems to prefer his own counsel. They are the rarest of political animals--two individuals who rose to the highest office without liking to be with other people. A penchant for solitude may not only cause failure but prevent solutions, especially if they involve compromise, from being devised.

We'll see. It's going to be a long three years. © 2013 Stephen Yuen