Hey Obama: Where's Your Backbone?

It’s like he has Stockholm Syndrome: instead of standing up for his beliefs, Obama keeps trying to please his Republican captors, seeing their “good side” while they take advantage of him, writes Frank Rich in the New York Times. “A chief executive who repeatedly presents himself as a conciliator in the end comes across as weightless, if not AWOL.”

Rich argues Obama should look to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie as a role model--even though Rich can’t stand the governor’s views. “The core of Christie’s appeal at home is that he explains passionately held views in concrete, plain-spoken detail.” His popularity doesn’t show the US has shifted right; it shows “people want a leader with a strong voice, even if only to argue with it.”
(More President Obama stories.)