Like a downhill slalom skier, Obama keeps going back and forth all over the issue of bank socialization. Having first said that he wanted the Swedish model, he smoothly forgot all about nationalization, only to stir up concerns about it again. This has of course sent bank shares down in the basement, as no one wants to invest in a corporation that will be seized by the government. Now Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke has been forced to step forward and try to bring order to the president's self-made verbal labyrinth on the issue.

 

However, Bernanke also does not exclude that somewhere down the road (when Obama has learned to make both his feet walk in the same direction) the federal government may find it necessary to seize banks anyway.

 

Alas, yesterday's news. Which, of course, is no news at all. The Obama administration has shown significant skills in contradicting itself already from the get-go. The incoming-outgoing health secretary, Tom Daschle, wanted a universal, single-payer health care system. Obama said no to that. Then another, more permanent cabinet member expressed interest in Big Brothering all vehicles in America to track their whereabouts on highways and byways. Obama quickly said he did not want that either.

 

A president that shows such amateurish leadership skills is bound to lose in popularity. No wonder his approval ratings are slowly sinking.

 

Maybe next time more voters will realize that nice speeches do not make up for lack of leadership experience. There is a reason why every president between LBJ and Obama has been either a vice president or a governor.