“I don’t really care to be president without the Senate,” Obama reportedly conceded in June.
Political analysts, and even some Democratic insiders, have long questioned whether President Barack Obama’s frequent golf outings and extended vacations are further evidence that he has checked out on the presidency and is eager to hit the exits. In the wake of last night’s Republican romp, Democrats’ suspicions that Obama is as ready to return to civilian life as Republicans are to send him there may only grow.
Outgoing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) aggressively shielded Obama by holding up Senate bills that would have proven embarrassing defeats to a president at odds with members of his own Democratic Party.
Republicans are inclined to attribute Obama’s waning desire to lead and manage America’s affairs to a personality that seems at odds with the rigorous demands of executive leadership. And they point to Obama’s own words.
When Barbara Walters asked him in 2011 what trait “you most deplore in yourself,” Obama answered candidly. “Laziness,” said Obama. “There is a deep down, underneath all the work that I do, I think there’s a laziness in me. It’s probably from, you know, growing up in Hawaii and it’s sunny outside, and sitting on the beach.”
The 2016 presidential election will take place in 734 days.