You haven't a clue what leadership is. Leadership in a democratic type society IS symbolism - pure and simple. This isn't the days when the leader became so due to a concrete difference: because he was the strongest, or proved himself to be the wisest, or anything like that. There is no objective measure of democratic leadership. Electability is what gains the White House, not leadership. Bush proved that one in a big way.
It is symbolism that creates the image of a leader in all modern societies. In non-democratic type societies, their leaders invariably go to great efforts to bolster their image as the leader, through symbols such as statues, giant bill boards, etc. The former USSR leaders would have great military parades, as if they had anything directly to do with the appearance and effectiveness of the military. But it didn't matter because the SYMBOL was there to create the image of a great leader.
And one of the BIGGEST symbols in our society is that their actions match their words. "Do as I say, not as I do" is a poor style of leadership. What do you think is meant by "a leader leads by example?" In the military, where the hierarchy of leadership is as important as the bread we eat and the rifles we fire, leadership by example is the way of life. A ranking officer who shows up in a combat zone in clean, pressed dress uniform with shiny shoes for a brief speech is not viewed well by the soldiers, and as a result the leadership image suffers - and the effectiveness of that section of the military as a whole is diminished. However, when they show up in battle fatigues and dusty boots, "observe" the soldiers by crawling into their fox holes and talking with them, THAT is a leader who understands the importance of the leader image. His presence is littel more than a symbol, because his knowledge of the war comes from other means. But the symbol, that he is just, in the end, another fox-hole mudfoot is IMPORTANT. He is respected, and his unit will be the better for it.
But, in this (and other) cases, Obama is NOT leading by example, is he? Telling people that they need to pay more taxes (at least some of them) to reduce the deficit, then turning around and INCREASING the deficit - however slightly - with unnecessarily high expenses for his vacation is NOT actions which fit his words. THAT is a poor leader, no matter HOW you want to gloss it over with "symbols never matter much to me".
