Op-Ed: When will Obama resign - or does he wait and stand down in 2012?

Washington - Right now, everyone is focused on the elections in 2010, yet the bigger event is the one in 2012. Obama's 2008 campaign manager David Plouffe meanwhile says that the president is 'not concerned' with being re-elected. Does Obama perhaps want to get out?

I was led to think about Obama and to write this after reading an article by Toby Harnden in last Saturday's Telegraph. The author makes several good points when he discusses the possibility that Barack Obama looks like he's preparing to be an ex-president rather than a second term president in the post-American world we seem to be heading for. Hamden and myself differ widely in out reasoning, but come to a similar conclusion. I find the idea an intriguing one, that someone would perhaps welcome loosing that race, or not run for re-election in the first place, considering that to fly Air Force 1 and be introduced as "The President of the United States of America" seems to be the pinnacle of achievement to many Americans; even to a certain Austria-born tough guy with impeccable birth certificate. It's the American dream, featuring a white house and helicopters and secret knowledge and golf. Although David Plouffe, in the forthcoming paperback version of his book "The Audacity to Win" qualifies his statement that Obama is 'not concerned' with re-election, giving as reason that the good man "is focused on leading the country forward," I can't help but wonder if a decent man who promised change yet can't deliver it might not wish to quit what I regard as the worst job on the planet. I mean, let's face the stark reality of living in the gutter that poses as the pinnacle of power: the hill, the white house, Washington DC. His voters are disappointed, the polls show that. His opponents paint him either as clown or as communist, as Muslim or Nazi, they devote all their energy to paint him black. Even when he continues GOP policies that were loved and applauded during the Bush-era, they don't agree now. Obama can't do anything right. He was born in the wrong place, with the wrong skin color, the wrong parents and the wrong teachers and preachers. Just about everyone seems to have acquired this new fetish that may soon make the Oxford dictionary: Obama-bashing. So why does an educated multimillionaire put up with all this crap, not to mention that he, his wife and kids can only move around with a plethora of body-guards making sure no one is shot at or spat at. Not to mention that you have to smile continuously as if you were being paid for a toothpaste advert claiming that Yes We Can rid America and the world of all caries. Does he stay on because it provides opportunities to give brilliant speeches once in a while or to get a price for something noble you're actually unable to achieve? I'm sure he could get the prime-time slots on TV and the speeches just as well after resigning from his post and by telling the world just how the presidency sucks, how the corporate-military system sucks, how little you can actually achieve or change while being besieged by lobbyists and betrayed by disloyal party members. Or does he perhaps not resign because of an inner sense of integrity, having promised to serve the country for four years, feeling bound to do so at any cost, to himself and his family? In the latter case, his best option is to make sure that he won't be re-elected, perhaps not even nominated once more by the Democrats. Does that sound reasonable when we can read David Plouffe mentioning "The one thing I'm sure of is that in this swiftly changing world we [the Democrats; addition mine] find ourselves in, staying in the same place is the surest route to defeat." Which brings me back to Toby Hamden, who writes:

"Almost everything Obama does these days suggests that he doesn't care much about being re-elected. Strange as it might seem, perhaps he wants to be a one-term president."