Even though he is the President-elect, Barack Obama has remained silent on the issue of government bailouts. He has particularly not had much to say about the auto industry bailout. Read about it below and see a photo and video.

Barack Obama

As we all know, Barack Obama generally has voted the non-committal ‘present’ for votes he has had to make in the positions in the Illinois and the United States Senates. We had thought that as President, he would not be able to vote ‘present’ as being President does require one to make a decision periodically, even if the decision is controversial.

Now various American industries going to the government with their hats in their hands asking for tax payer money to bail them out of their financial troubles. You probably remember that during the presidential campaign, when financial institutions threatened to collapse without a bailout from the government, McCain went to his job as a Senator and got right in the middle of the mess. Obama avoided it like the plague and only went to Washington when President Bush called him personally and told him that he really needed to participate in the talks.

In other words, McCain got his hands dirty and Obama stayed far away from anything that might be perceived by voters as controversial.

Now the auto industry is front and center. The democrats, who have been in charge of all this for the past two years, are trying to force through a bail out for the auto industry. The Republicans, many of the more centrist democrats and the President, are against the bailout on the grounds that its not fair to expect the tax payer to ‘reward’ an industry that has used bad business practices that have lead to their own downfall.

The media is using words like Obama is ‘laying low’. In fact, he’s sent out a couple of his top advisers to say things like they are encouraging the auto industry to come up with environmental friendly cars. The democrats are saying that Obama needs to DO something. At least take a stance! They are saying he needs to step up to the plate and take some kind of action as the President-elect! They say it can’t wait until January 20th.

Obama has spoken about the issue only three times, in the three interviews he’s had since his election. Each time his statements were vague in the extreme, non committal and avoiding controversy and being tied down to a stance on the subject at all cost.

He generally says something like that he’s been really busy and sends out Rahm Emanuel again to say something.

As the democrats have put more heat on him to address the subject, he finally made his most direct and meaty statement to date. He said that he was really busy and all, but that everybody needs to keep discussing the issue and see if they can’t come up with some kind of solution to the problem.

Leadership doesn’t seem to be his strong suit. At least when it comes to taking political risks by actually stating a position on something.

This should be a very interesting four years. I hope its not TOO interesting.