Can it get any worse for Obama?

• Dean Obeidallah: Obama in a tough stretch, facing policy debacles, low poll numbers


• If it were a movie, his character would be surrounded -- but he can change outcome, he says


• He says he must aggressively press agenda and also aim for Democrats to retake House


• Obeidallah: GOP dictating narrative, but he must take control before term runs out

Editor's note: Dean Obeidallah, a former attorney, is a political comedian and frequent commentator on various TV networks including CNN. He is the co-director of the new comedy documentary "The Muslims Are Coming!" It was released recently. Follow him on Twitter @deanofcomedy.

(CNN) -- Things are looking horrible for President Barack Obama. There's the Obamacare website fiasco. Ongoing allegations of National Security Agency spying on European leaders. There was the government shutdown that damaged the economy on his watch. And a new poll released this week finds Obama with his lowest approval rating -- and his highest disapproval rating -- ever.

If this were a movie, we would be at the part where the hero finds himself surrounded. He has no escape routes and he's outgunned. What will happen next: Will our hero prevail like John McClane in "Die Hard," or will he fail like William Wallace in "Braveheart"?

Well, the good news for Obama is that the script for the final scenes of his presidency has not been written yet. The bad news is that he may not be the one writing it.

Simply put: Obama is not the protagonist driving his own story. Rather, his storyline is being dictated by others. No question, he has long had trouble controlling the narrative, with a GOP bent on denying him, basically, everything he wants. But now he's heading toward the end of his final term -- and the clock is ticking on his agenda.

Obama's main antagonist, of course, is the hyper-partisan Congress that refuses to agree on the most basic issues, such as raising the debt ceiling, which Congress has done more than 40 times since 1980. And unless something changes, it's looking bad for immigration reform, universal background checks for gun purchases, income tax reform or any of the other proposals he outlined in his State of the Union nine months ago.

Perhaps the worst thing about the problems with the Obamacare website is that they occurred at a time when things were finally looking politically brighter for Obama. Though the government shutdown had been an unwelcome setback, polls showed after it ended that Americans blamed the Republicans in Congress for it much more than they blamed him. It looked as if Obama had righted his ship and would be able to refocus Americans on his priorities.

It was as if Obama had become George Clooney as the captain of the fishing boat in "The Perfect Storm." The rain has stopped, the ocean is turning calm and there is even a glimmer of sunlight; he's beaten the storm. But then moments later, the sky darkens and there is a deluge of rain. The choppy waters (in this case, the Obamacare website debacle) soon consume the ship.

Cost of Obamacare exchanges

Cruz's dad: Send Obama 'back to Kenya'

Is this Obama's metaphoric fate? He can accept another plotline -- let's say of "Gravity," with Obama as a character like Sandra Bullock's, hit with one harrowing challenge after another. This may be exciting to watch, but not great for the character, who has no idea what will happen next.

I'd recommend a different story line. I'd use the ending of "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" as inspiration and metaphorically go out with guns blazing. Why not set some lofty goals that will frame the agenda anew going forward?

First, Obama should announce that retaking control of the House in 2014 is a top priority. Yes, many districts have been gerrymandered to all but ensure re-election for Republican House members. But he should take the fight to his adversaries anyway. Unseating some tea party House members has become newly possible after the shutdown mess. Their approval ratings are just below toe fungus. Can the President maneuver through this new landscape and turn it to his advantage? Even getting more moderate Republicans into the House could be a step toward sanity. (Sometimes you have to improvise to make a story line work.)

Obama should also use executive orders to the extent legally possible to attain his policy objectives. He did this very thing in 2011 when he ordered that many children of parents illegally in the United States would no longer be deported.

Sure, the Republicans will push back -- they will say Obama is behaving like a "king" or "tyrant" and complain about him nightly on Fox News. But the upside is that the debate will be about the issues the President has chosen.

It's denouement time for Obama as we enter the final act of his presidency. Will the President's agenda continue to be dictated by others, making him nothing more than a lame duck, caretaker President? Or will he use every means at his discretion to write his own story?

Obama is the star of this movie. The only question is: How is it going to end?

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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Dean Obeidallah.

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Arming TSA officials not the answer

Police officers and emergency response officials meet outside Terminal 3 at Los Angeles International Airport after gunshots were reported inside the terminal on Friday, November 1.

Transportation Security Administration employees hug outside Terminal 1.

This photo, from Terminal 3, shows what appears to be a weapon on the ground. Police said a man "pulled an assault rifle out of a bag and began to open fire" Friday, killing one person and injuring others before being shot and taken into custody.

Law enforcement officers gather in Terminal 3 near the scene of the shooting.

Passengers sit on a luggage conveyor belt behind check-in kiosks in Terminal 1.

Police check the area around Terminal 1.

Passengers evacuate the airport after the incident, which airport officials said began about 9:30 a.m. The gunfire and the airport's announcement of the incident provoked chaos among travelers, passengers said.

People hide inside a bathroom stall at the airport after the gunshots were reported.

Thousands of travelers were delayed after the incident closed the airport for hours.

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck talks with other responders at the airport Friday.

A police officer closes a road at the airport. The area around the airport was jammed with cars Friday morning as police shut down access.

Police officers stand guard atop Terminal 3.

Passengers are directed outside Terminal 2.

A family walks through a tunnel as they leave the airport.

Passengers evacuated from Terminal 1 wait outside the airport.

"People were running and people (were) getting knocked down. There was luggage everywhere," traveler Alex Neumann said. "Mayhem is the best I can describe it."

People wait in a terminal after flights were grounded because of the incident.

Passengers wait on the curb after leaving the airport.

A police officer directs traffic.

The gunfire reports led to a "ground stop" for arriving planes, said police and the Federal Aviation Administration.

A police officer diverts traffic trying to enter the airport.

First responders and emergency vehicles arrive at the airport.

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• Tiffany Hawk: 9/11 left a legacy of security measures by airlines and airports


• Friday's shooting at LAX raises new security concerns, she says


• Hawk: Violence in schools, malls and cinemas is more prevalent than terrorism


• Arming airline workers -- often underpaid and over-stressed -- is a bad idea, she says

Editor's note: Tiffany Hawk is a former flight attendant with United Airlines and Virgin America is the author of "Love Me Anyway," a novel about airline culture.

(CNN) -- We don't know much about the shooting at Los Angeles International Airport just yet, but it has clearly jangled our collective nerves, dredging up the fear and shock and pain of 9/11 -- the wellspring of our modern airport security process -- reminding us that more than a decade later, flying is still a fraught experience.

For those of us who were working for United or American, that day in 2001 changed everything. When we finally got back onboard, our workplace now included air marshals, armed pilots, martial arts lessons, tasers, fortified cockpit doors, and a new focus on vigilance, not warmth and customer service. "Welcome aboard" was less a greeting and more an opportunity to size you up.

So, reports of today's airport shooting raise new fears about weaknesses in this system. Is it possible that the gunman who shot and killed one TSA officer and injured two of his colleagues may have made it through LAX security with a high-powered rifle? (As of this writing, that is not yet clear.)

And is it time to start arming Transportation Security Administration officials?

No way.

I can understand the urge to react, to grasp at anything that might protect travelers. I too want air travel to be safe; hell, my husband is a pilot. But arming screeners at checkpoints well away from the airfield wouldn't be just another of the many precautions the airlines have taken to avert large-scale terrorism. It would simply be about protecting people from something that is everywhere in America: gun violence -- yes, at airports, and also at schools, at movie theaters, and malls.

If you're the kind of person who thinks that every teacher and hall monitor and mall cop and cinema usher should be armed, then you'll probably feel safer if we give guns to TSA officers. And maybe flight attendants and customer service reps and baggage handlers. And probably bus drivers and ballpark ticket takers, and hospital staff.

LAX shooting delays flights nationwide

September 11, 2001, still hurts, but most of our public killings have been at the hands of angry or disturbed co-workers, students, neighbors, family members -- not terrorists.

Do you really want to start handing out guns to the people you work with?

Probably not if you work for an airline where people are often underpaid, overworked, sometimes inhumanely exhausted and locked, perennially, in famously contentious relationships with management.

Even before 9/11, it made me nervous that as airline workers, we skipped security entirely, simply hopping off the employee bus and entering a back door, bags and bodies unscreened. I feared that the next air disaster would be caused by a colleague with a bone to pick. Of course, I was wrong, and thankfully employees' bags are now screened, but giving guns to airline and airport workers is still a disquieting idea.

I was never a fan of armed pilots, even in the nightmarish days after 9/11. Another flight attendant might have felt reassured but, when I once walked into the cockpit of a 757 to find a pilot with a gun resting on his lap, I was most decidedly rattled. I hadn't met the guy before and had no reason to distrust him, but even the thought of an accident was enough to make me question my safety (turbulence anyone?).

And a couple of chilling mishaps -- an inadvertent discharge in the cockpit of a US Airways plane and an incident where a JetBlue pilot lost his gun in an airport -- demonstrate the potential dangers of even a best-case-scenario arming of the nation's nearly 50,000 TSA agents.

Chaos, terror unfold inside LAX Terminal 3

Unquestionably, terrorism is a real concern for airlines, but like it or not, as Americans, we have also have to worry just as much about angry neighbors with guns.

To fight our justified fear, some will undoubtedly push for more guns and others for fewer. One thing is for certain -- we will continually be forced to debate this. I only hope that we can find some common ground before the next reminder.

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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Tiffany Hawk.

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