The President-Elect is receiving criticism today for his vague answers and response to questions about his own and his transition's knowledge and role in the Blagojevich Senate sale. Whether or not it's worthy of criticism, this ambiguity is characteristic of the man as a political figure and leader; he simply chafes at certitude and commitment.
In the late campaign his opponents criticized his penchant for voting "present" in the Illinois State Senate. At the Saddleback Presidential Forum in August all he would say about abortion was that "I'm absolutely convinced [there] is a moral and ethical element to this issue." As a candidate he was conspicuously vague about the economy as it crashed, and this has continued as President-Elect. He delayed announcing his selection for treasury secretary for weeks, ignoring the clamor from the markets. As a guest on Meet the Press last Sunday his common answer to questions about the economy was some variation of "my advisors are looking at this."
The person who ran on the empty bottles of "Hope" and "Change" simply does not like to commit himself on record; which entails taking a specific position, which means disappointing or even angering some group of people or another. As long as he floats in nebulosity he can be all things to all people. Should he be decisive he would actually have to descend into the squabbles of mortals, diminishing his transcendence.
If this were to happen, Barack Obama would not be Barack Obama.
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