KC panel to President Obama: Stop being so nice and start causing a ruckus

If a combination of national crisis and personal character define a transformational president, Barack Obama is squandering his historic circumstances by being, well, too nice.

That was the mostly disappointed analysis from three political and media experts who visited Kansas City for the Harry S. Truman Library Institute‘s third annual “Forum on the Presidency.” At last night’s discussion about “Presidential Leadership in Transformational Times,” Robert Kuttner best summed up the panel’s perspective.

“He’ll be either the next [Herbert] Hoover or the next [Franklin D.] Roosevelt because of the crises he faces,” said the author, columnist and co-founder of The American Prospect.

At this point, Kuttner and his fellow panelists aren’t convinced Obama will be the latter.