Why Obama Can't Stand Up to the Right -- What His Face Reveals

        When President Obama was running for office my students and numerous friends asked me about his morphology (the form of his face i.e. face reading). I said he was a nervous temperament, primarily, and was extremely articulate and well spoken. Being very intelligent, more of an academic, scholarly type, he favors reasonable conversations with sensible men and women to reach a compromise or a common ground. He would not have fully comprehended the impossibility of bipartisanship in modern American politics. 

For all his charm, grace and visionary intelligence, he lacked the strength to stand up to the opposition and forcefully push through his goals. His temperament has a tough time understanding the dangers of appeasement - which never works - especially when it is tied to “reasonable “conversation.’’ An FDR he’s not, nor are any of the Republican candidates. 

When his first challenge regarding the economic crash aroused stiff opposition from Wall Street, he showed his weakness by capitulating to the banks and their allies.  His response contradicted his facade of being a populist president. This incurred a two fold response: 1) demoralization of his followers; 2) opening a door for the extreme right wing to pounce on him at every turn. New York Magazine’s July 11, 2011 front cover headline summed it up: Something Rotten: Obamas’ failure to right the wrongs of the crash has haunted his presidency and could undo it (Frank Rich).