Should Obama Resign?

Yesterday, I suggested that Barack Obama might decide not to run for re-election in 2012.

Anticipating an ignominious defeat, liberal Democrats are wishing and hoping for Barack Obama to step aside.

It seems a bit farfetched, but there is no harm preparing for improbable events.

If Republicans do not have a plan for running against Hillary, they are derelict in their political duties.

This morning, two columnists have upped the ante.

Quin Hillyer recommended that Obama could help the economy by abdicating. We’ll give Hillier a pass on the fact that in normal English usage you can only abdicate a throne.

Hillyer offers a well-crafted opening paragraph: “This boringly ineffective would-be demagogue in the Oval Office keeps trotting out the same tired, petty, counterfactual lines in every one of his pompous, detached-from-reality speeches -- and he did so again in his Saturday radio address. So shopworn is his refrain, and so counterproductive are his policies (both enacted and proposed), that the markets tank just about every time he opens his mouth, and the economy suffers with each minute he continues to occupy the White House. His resignation from office, in abject embarrassment at his failures, would be a great first step toward economic recovery, not to mention a balm to the souls of tens of millions of Americans sick of his condescension, his prevarications, and his incompetence.”

Then, Michael Malone recommends that Obama resign, on the grounds of illness.

Addressing himself to Obama, Malone writes: “From the opinion polls to the depressed state of the stock markets to growing contempt of our enemies (and friends) around the world to the stunning lack of new ideas for getting out of our current economic predicament to the apparent impending failure of your signature universal healthcare initiative, it has become obvious even to members of your own party that you are in over your head.

“You know it too, Mr. President, if your endless golf games and vacations – not to mention your increasingly incoherent public appearances – are any indication of your state of mind.”

Malone suggests that resignation is the best thing that could happen to the progressive cause. He also sees resignation as the best way for Obama to save face.

By my analysis someone who fakes an illness in order to resign is not saving face. If Obama wants to walk away with his head held high, he would do better to declare himself a successful, albeit misunderstood one-term president, declare victory, and refuse to run for re-election.

If Obama is facing a choice between rejection by the voters and resigning from office, I recommend that he choose the middle ground and retire at the end of his first term.