The curse of Barack Obama

Gregory Clay

Monday, May 6, 2013 | 2:01 a.m.

James Bond had Dr. No; the United States has Dr. C.

Give me a “C” for Calamity ... for President Barack Obama.

The president’s administration appears to be pock-marked by man-made devastation and disruption.

“What Obama has to deal with is what presidents deal with,” said Dr. Robert Dallek, highly acclaimed presidential history professor at Stanford University’s Stanford in Washington program. “He’s sort of the mourner in chief. Obama has had his full share of doing this.”

For sure, call it a coincidence of bad timing.

We see it from Fort Hood to Tucson to the Sikh temple to Chicago to Newtown to Boston — so many incidents that we can’t remember them all. This list seems interminable.

What other presidency has been cursed by this unfathomable track record of catastrophe?

Well, some observers will say Abraham Lincoln presided over the most devastating period on American soil: the Civil War in the 1860s. The country was drifting apart based on region. Slavery and states’ rights were key issues in that North vs. South tug of war.

In the final analysis, Lincoln, ultimately, completed his mission: to preserve the union.

Because of those deeply entrenched differences, a civil war was inevitable. Now, we are suspended in an anxiety-inducing atmosphere of total uncertainty.

While a tuxedo-clad Obama was whooping it up with snappy one-liners and zingers at the annual White House Correspondents Dinner alongside Conan O’Brien, many Americans surely must be wondering what’s going to happen next ... and when ... and how.

And how bad.

What about President Lyndon Johnson in the 1960s? His presidency eventually was consumed by the Vietnam War. However, the ugly part occurred on foreign soil.

And President Franklin Roosevelt? The same can be said of World War II. Luckily, the United States was spared.

What’s particularly conspicuous during the Obama administration is that we have witnessed events that are unprecedented during modern times. Twenty 6- or 7-year-old schoolchildren were murdered in one felonious act, one that took only a matter of seconds, in idyllic Newtown, Conn. That’s a first. Boston, a marquee city steeped in history and tradition, was relegated to virtual lockdown status the Friday after the marathon bombing. Name another instance when that has occurred in a major city.

Think about it: New York and Washington weren’t in lockdown on Sept. 11 when the World Trade Center and Pentagon, respectively, were brazenly attacked in 2001.

Obama entered office as commander in chief but is in danger of exiting as calamity in chief. Many of us are looking around the corner ... for what’s next. Will it be another mass school shooting or pressure-cooker bombing or a shootout at the O.K. Corral, a la Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas?

“Franklin Roosevelt had to console during the Great Depression,” Dallek said. “Harry Truman had the Korean War and the Cold War. Lyndon Johnson had to talk to the country after President Kennedy was killed. Bill Clinton had the Oklahoma City bombing and Columbine. George Bush had Sept. 11 and Virginia Tech.”

But hasn’t the man-made catastrophe quotient been worse under Obama, Dallek was asked.

“I think you are on fair ground saying he’s had more,” he acknowledged.

Still, there is a tangential, though dynamic, issue here. Obama is this nation’s first black president. There has been talk that other possible black candidates may want to follow in his footsteps to the White House. But could these possible candidates — such as Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick or pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Benjamin Carson or Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker — face a backlash?

The line of thinking could go like this: If American life was chock full of anxious moments and national security/safety issues under Obama, what about the next black guy? Be careful what you ask for, some surely will say.

In real time, Obama’s presidential legacy is health care, unprecedented support of gay rights, mass shootings and bombings, and a high black unemployment rate that ranges between a Great Depression-like 12 to 16 percent, depending upon the month.

If that high black unemployment rate was hovering during President George W. Bush’s administration, there probably would have been a march on Washington, nearly 50 years after the first one. Many seem willing to give Obama a free pass on this issue.

Now, will the next black presidential candidate suffer because of that and the other calamities? Dallek says no. “I think President Obama gives people confidence an African-American president can be president of all the people,” he says.

Dallek’s argument is that Obama has shown he can lead the nation during times of crisis and that he’s making the pavement smoother — not rougher — for the next black candidate. “Why would anyone blame him for these incidents?” Dallek reasoned. “That would be unfair.”

Perhaps so. But there’s a “however” in all this. However, what’s “unfair” and what’s perception can be polar opposite. And perception is usually stronger than reality.

Obama has three-plus years to improve his legacy. Mr. President, as they say in the National Football League, you’re on the clock.

Gregory Clay is assistant sports editor for McClatchy-Tribune News Service.