In the midst of the com­men­tary sur­round­ing President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address, his style of gov­ern­ing has been ana­lyzed almost as much as his pol­icy decisions.

Jacob Weisberg, a colum­nist for Slate​.com, recently wrote an arti­cle argu­ing that Obama’s calm and ana­lyt­i­cal per­sona is a pri­mary rea­son for the decline in pub­lic sup­port for him and his party. I find this point both inter­est­ing and depressing.

“The way Obama con­nects to peo­ple is the oppo­site of a Clinton, a Bush, or a Ronald Reagan. Those pres­i­dents were all relaters. They bonded with peo­ple based on com­mon feel­ings, expe­ri­ences, and interests…His [Obama’s] rela­tion­ship with the world is pri­mar­ily ratio­nal and ana­lyt­i­cal rather than intu­itive or emo­tional,” said Weisberg.

After read­ing Weisberg’s arti­cle, I see myself at odds with what the appar­ent major­ity of American peo­ple want, if what Weisberg is spec­u­lat­ing is true. I do not want some­one who bases their deci­sions on emo­tion and gut reac­tion to be run­ning one of the most pow­er­ful coun­tries in the world; I want some­one who is thought­ful, calm and ana­lyt­i­cal in that position.

I am not propos­ing that Bill Clinton, George W. Bush or Ronald Reagan were not ana­lyt­i­cal, that is not at issue here. Analytical and emo­tional are not mutu­ally exclu­sive traits. What wor­ries me is that peo­ple dis­trust Obama because he doesn’t employ that same show of emo­tion. I think being calm and ana­lyt­i­cal is a nec­es­sary qual­ity for any effec­tive and worth­while leader.

Obama has very often been accused of elit­ism. This was said of him both on the cam­paign trail as well as dur­ing his first year of pres­i­dency. The fact that he doesn’t show his feel­ings as eas­ily may very well have some­thing to do with this. People see him as cold, which they equate with a feel­ing of superiority.

I have a bone to pick with these peo­ple. If they want some­one who talks down at the level of the aver­age American, they will also get some­one of that intel­li­gence. This is also the attrac­tion to Sarah Palin.

She is seen as a “home­town girl” who very much relates with “home­town” Americans. I don’t under­stand the attrac­tion to hav­ing some­one like this lead the coun­try. I want some­one who is not aver­age and not of mediocre intel­li­gence to be lead­ing our coun­try. I think an intel­li­gent leader is a nec­es­sary com­po­nent to a prop­erly func­tion­ing society.

If Barack Obama is los­ing sup­port­ers because he is either too ana­lyt­i­cal or too smart, that is not a flaw of his. That is a flaw of the peo­ple he is los­ing sup­port from due to this reason.

There can be rea­son­able dis­sent about the pol­icy deci­sions Obama has made in his first year of office. There can be doubts about the effec­tive­ness of his deci­sions abroad. But I think it is clear that he is some­one who researches issues fully before mak­ing a deci­sion and he very much “looks before he leaps.”

As Thomas Henry Huxley said, “Irrationally held truths may be more harm­ful than rea­soned errors.”