Steve Chapman: Obama and the Virtues of Inaction

In responding to the Ebola crisis, President
Barack Obama is being his usual self: passive, detached, unable or
unwilling to lead. So say his critics, who accuse him of being an
idle observer of his own presidency.

Idleness in the Oval Office is not necessarily a vice. What
Obama displays in this episode are not his worst qualities but his
best ones. In refusing to succumb to the demands for showy action,
he is dampening emotions that others exploit for political
convenience. He is insisting on rational responses to a danger that
preys on primal fears, writes Steve Chapman.

In many ways, that’s a sound approach. But it can be a handicap
in a media environment biased toward big, visible choices, even if
they are largely symbolic or self-defeating. Longtime adviser David
Axelrod told Bloomberg BusinessWeek, “There’s no doubt that there’s
a theatrical nature to the presidency that he resists.”

The safety of modern American life makes many people yearn for
excitement and danger. With crime falling sharply, life expectancy
rising, the specter of all-out nuclear war relegated to history and
homeland terrorism nearly nonexistent, things can feel so placid as
to be boring. So some of us look for ways to liven up our
existence, according to Chapman.

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