The problem is not whether the president went to Athens with his child to watch a basketball game, or whether he was photographed with Antetokounmpo, or even if he uses his child to enhance his image (a child’s image always helps, touching sensitive chords).
The problem is not whether he wore his football team’s jersey and stepped onto the pitch holding a child’s hand.
Nor is it a problem if, a few days later, he wore a sleeveless shirt (for a good cause and without, perhaps, looking in the mirror first) and appeared on the pitch again, providing fodder for comments.
Obama did all these things, and there was nothing wrong with that. On the contrary, we loved watching him. We saw him in shorts playing golf, swimming in the sea, wearing a leather jacket like a rock star, eating ice cream, watching TV, playing with his dog… He had an innate sense of style, no doubt.
But beyond style, he gave the impression that he had set his country on a trajectory, and the government machinery worked under his guidance for the country’s prosperity and progress, making significant changes. And it wasn’t just an impression; his presidency yielded tangible results.
The problem with our president is that, to date, he has not shown any signs of the changes he intends to make or even the problems he has set out to solve. We don’t have high expectations, nor do we believe in pre-election programmes that promise to transport us to some other country. It would suffice for him to introduce a few basic demands and solve a few problems.
But so far, the impression he gives is that he is merely fulfilling a term, and the state sometimes seems rudderless. Problems accumulate, making daily life more difficult. From traffic congestion on the roads to a perpetually floundering education system, inefficient public services, a healthcare system that, despite the introduction of GHS remains problematic in many aspects, a pension system with a huge gap, a time-consuming judicial system, and a host of other issues that create a field day for change.
Let him tackle even one of these problems and put it on a path to resolution, and he can go to the stadium as many times as he likes, dressed however he pleases.