The Rock Obama

There was an SNL skit. You didn’t watch it either because it was on SNL. But there was a skit last October where Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson morphed into The Rock Obama, flung Senator Baucus out an Oval Office window, and ripped off Senator McConnell’s arm. The skit inevitably fizzled out, as every SNL skit does nowadays, but it hasn’t stopped liberals from begging The Real Rock Obama to please stand up.

The difference now is that, in the last two weeks of January, we may have actually gotten him. Hearts are aflutter around campus that Alma Mater’s favorite son just got his groove back.

Granted, we’ve been wrong before. We thought we caught glimpses of The Rock Obama over the last two years. Obama’s presidential run crystallized under the starry Denver skies when he said “enough” to Republican shenanigans during his Democratic Convention speech in August 2008. We thought we had another peek when Obama shushed Republicans mid-meeting with “I won” in his first month in office before reverting back to No Drama Obama.

But we have never seen Obama like this. “Change” is so 2008—in 2010 it’s all about “fight.” Obama the Fighter was forged in the ruins of the Massachusetts Senate race imbroglio. He took Tea Party Republican Scott Brown’s upset win of Ted Kennedy’s former seat hard. To be fair, Democrat Martha Coakley was ruefully incompetent. For future reference, when trying to win a Senate race in Massachusetts, you probably shouldn’t accuse Red Sox legend Curt Schilling of being a Yankees fan. Brown stressed that his win was not a reflection of Obama, but, nonetheless, the president took two lessons from Massachusetts:

1) Stop blaming George W. Bush. Obama blasted in stump speeches this winter that one year isn’t enough to undo the previous eight. Massachusetts campaign ads caricaturing Scott Brown as a Bush clone fell flat. For the first time since he exploded onto the national spotlight, Obama cannot use Bush as a scapegoat.

Obama has been in the White House for a year now. The ADD-addled, 24-hour news-cycle-fueled American public doesn’t want to hear about W. who spent the past year crashing Dallas Cowboys games and making a living as a motivational speaker (because when I think motivation, oh yeah, I think of George W. Bush!). The presidential stakes have been raised. George W. Bush clings to the Churchillian legacy: he kept us safe. Obama has to keep us safe, employed, and in homes.

2) It’s the economy, not health care, stupid. It is tragic that Obama had to jeopardize his presidency just to try and extend health insurance to millions and save billions in the process, but, with apologies to Teddy, he has to move on. Congress will inevitably still pass some watered-down, piecemeal health care bill to save face, but it won’t win Democrats the midterms.

Obama over-learned Bill Clinton’s 1993-1994 health care debacle to a fault. He surely knows what will come next. The Democrats lost Congress in the 1994 midterms for the first time in 40 years. According to a 2009 Pew poll, 60 percent of Americans thought “a top priority” should be tackling the exploding deficit, which just ballooned by a cool $100 billion to $1.6 trillion, or over 10 percent of the nation’s GDP. Obama’s ultimate paradox is that two of Americans’ top priorities—unemployment and taming the deficit—are diametrically opposed. He can’t stimulate jobs without spending money, and this dilemma will likely cost Democrats dearly come November.

So, Obama admitted he took his “lumps” and came out swinging. He mobilized David Plouffe and the 2008 Election Dream Team to bail out skittish Democrats “running for the hills.” He exiled Timothy Geithner, dusted off Paul Volcker, and assailed the banks. The president called out the Supreme Court to its face during his State of the Union speech. Obama even sabre-rattled overseas, sending a $6 billion weapons deal to Taiwan over vociferous Chinese objections and quietly bolstering missile defense around the Persian Gulf.

The coup de grace, however, was Obama’s battle royale in the Republicans’ lion den. After letting the lunatics run the asylum and muddy the Recovery Act and health care debate last summer and fall, the warden strode in and laid down the law. For roughly 90 minutes, the president held court over the room of ranking Republicans, schooling them on policy and filleting their craftiest accusations. Republican officials later admitted letting the cameras roll was a mistake. So masterful was Obama’s lecture, FOX News cut away from the telecast 20 minutes early.

Rahm Emanuel likes to say that you should never let a crisis go to waste. Obama fell down after the Massachusetts debacle, but The Rock Obama got right back up, unleashing a fortnight of haymakers on Republicans, Democrats, and bankers alike. The real question is which Obama will show up next round. Whoever answers the bell could very well cement the president’s legacy as the next Jimmy Carter or the Democrats’ Ronald Reagan.

The author is a Columbia College 2008 graduate and will receive his MBA in 2011.