Our Feckless President

Over the weekend, the Washington Post had this story about President Obama's decision to stop talking about income inequality and, instead, focus on "opportunity," a gauzy phrase if ever there was one. You would think the president would have realized by now that the only real political tool he has is the bully pulpit and now, apparently, he is unwilling to use that pulpit to focus on poverty. 

This morning, the Post reports the president will be taking a "hard line" on the treatment of immigrant children, threatening to deport most of them back to the violence they were fleeing. Here, again, is a chance for the president to use his bully pulpit to ask what kind of country we have become when our hearts are not stirred by the plight of desperate children. Nah. The polls say otherwise. 

This has become a rudderless, feckless presidency. It is almost impossible to remember the sense of promise we all felt on that night in November 2008 when he won the election.