IT'S SOMETHING YOU CAN'T LEARN IN SCHOOL – AT 8:11 A.M. ET:  No question is asked more in politics today than "What happened to Barack Obama?"  Michael Barone, one of our most astute observers, believes that the president simply lacks the "intuition" to govern.  From the Washington Examiner:

No president enters office knowing everything he needs to know...

So presidents must rely on something else, something intangible and unquantifiable, in determining what is within the realm of possibility and what is a bridge too far: intuition.
Great leaders have it, though it sometimes fails; failed leaders don't, though their plans sometimes succeed...

...Barack Obama, so far, seems to belong in the second category. Like everyone who gets elected president, he entered office brimming with confidence, convinced he could end the hostility of the Iranian mullahs, Islamist terrorists, the leaders of China and Russia, and the likes of Hugo Chavez.

At least so far, that confidence has proved to be dreamy. Obama now knows their hostility was rooted not just in distaste for George W. Bush's Texas twang but to the fundamental character of the American people. A Muslim middle name hasn't made much difference.

And...

At home, Obama, like many others and not just in his own party, believed that economic distress would move Americans to favor government direction of the health care and energy sectors and to support sharply increased federal spending.

That intuition now seems unfounded. As does the intuition that the Senate would pass hugely important legislation on a party-line vote with not one vote to spare.

The intuition needed to whip up an already friendly crowd during a political campaign, and the intuition to govern are two different things.  The mainstream media missed that, in part because many journalists today don't believe in intuition.  They believe in elite educations as a kind of cure-all for the world's problems.

Having had the privilege of an "elite" education, I can testify that, while a fine thing to have, it doesn't cure anything.

Obama's two predecessors also suffered from failures of intuition. Bill Clinton recovered and got deserved credit for the 1996 welfare reform and the 1997 balanced-budget deal. George W. Bush recovered and deserves credit (though Joe Biden is claiming it now) for the success of the Iraq surge strategy.

Obama too may develop better intuition than he has shown so far. But first he has to acknowledge that a successful presidency requires more than the confidence conferred by a high IQ and fancy degrees.

COMMENT:  Barone is on target again.  Lincoln had only one year of schooling.  FDR was called "featherduster" by some because he was seen as an intellectual lightweight.  But both men had superb instincts.

So did Ronald Reagan, who understood the American people, unlike Jimmah Carter, his predecessor.

Again, I don't in any way disparage a fine education.  We certainly put a great deal of emphasis on formal education for our daughters.  But it just isn't enough, and too many members of our elite classes think it is. 

February 22, 2010