Charles Blow, "Obama in the Valley": The Robot President

In his latest New York Times op-ed entitled "Obama in the Valley" (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/20/opinion/blow-obama-in-the-valley.html?_r=1&hp), Charles Blow, an Obama loyalist from the Times op-ed page, also appears ready to defect. Observing the robotic quality of the current leading Republican contenders for the presidency (Bachmann, Perry and Romney), Blow tells us that he never expected to sense this eerie mechanical feeling from the president:

"But one person I never thought would fall into this valley was Barack Obama, the charismatic candidate who electrified the electorate in 2008 and whom many saw as the fulfillment of the dream of the even-more-electrifying Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Yet here Obama is, down in the valley, struggling to connect with the American people and failing, increasingly coming across as dispassionate to some and outright revolting to others."

Blow calls upon the president to rise to the economic and foreign affairs crisis, and concludes:

"A robotic Sustainer-in-Chief with an eerie inhumanity will not satisfy."

"Sustainer-in-Chief"? I prefer Procrastinator-in-Chief, but be that as it may, I propose a simple solution to humanize Obama:

Unplug him from the Axelrod teleprompter.

This might reveal the president to be inexperienced and confused, as he no longer looks left, then right, for scripted text. On the other hand, when he stutters and stumbles, as he will, we'll know he's no longer an android of Axelrod's making.

By the way, if you're looking for something other than a robot, consider the combative, in-your-face Chris Christie. Like him or not, there can be no mistaking Christie for a robot.