Brain-Jockey

Lynn Sweet, of the Chicago Sun Times reports on her blog that Barack Obama will resign his Senate seat this Sunday (since confirmed by Reuters).  It will be interesting to hear the reasoning for such an early resignation especially in light of the coming congressional session to deal with the economic mess.

Yes, his votes would be overly scrutinized because he is President-elect, but that is standard procedure for a sitting president. If he can not handle it now, when can he?

 

 

Obama is not showing political courage by resigning and he is neglecting the duties of Senator at this crucial time.  He seems to be running from any policies adopted during this interim period so he can avoid responsibility for what Congress and President Bush decide. He’s trying for the clean slate approach in 2009, no sense getting his hands dirty now.  This is disheartening from a leadership standpoint since he is advocating the automaker bailout; his actions are not in line with his words.

Courage of one’s convictions is needed now; he could be a strong force for advocating policies he believes will help the country by persuading his fellow congressional members and activating that much vaunted grassroots organization for help on these issues. He could be one of the leaders in this emergency session without undermining the authority of President Bush. One hopes Obama comes to understand the “buck stops here” nature of the Presidency and that he will have to stop behaving senatorally - in his own interest - and begin to conduct himself presidentially.