Has President Obama lost the one skill he has relied upon so heavily? Has the magic oratory suddenly gone leaden as indicated by his campaign speech for Martha Coakley?
“Here’s my assessment of not just the vote in Massachusetts but the mood around the country — the same thing that swept Scott Brown into office swept me into office,” Mr. Obama said. “People are angry and they are frustrated. Not just because of what’s happened in the last year or two years, but what’s happened over the last eight years.” — New York Times, “Obama Trying to Turn Around his Presidency.” – 1/21/2010
Really? “…what’s happened over the last eight years.” Is he kidding me? Does he not remember that Bush was reelected four years ago. Is this just one more elitist swipe at the “stupid” American people who are so dumb that they don’t even know things are bad for four years such that they reelect their president? When is he going to get off the campaign trail and start governing? When, with one-fourth of his term over, is he going to realize this is his gig now, and stop crying about Bush? The anti-Bush attacks against Scott Brown by Coakley in the closing days of the campaign fell flat. That doesn’t work anymore. This isn’t about the last eight years, but about the last twelve months. The American people are sick of the Democrats trying to spend us into oblivion.
It seems that he may be betting the ranch on the State of the Union address, which runs the risk of Obama fatigue. President Obama seems to confuse speeches with leadership. Coming into office with zero executive experience, he let the inmates (Pelosi and Reid) run the asylum. With the election of Scott Brown, Reid just lost his iron grip and Pelosi may not be far behind. So what does Obama do? Give another speech? He has given more speeches than any president in memory, but there is time for talk and time for action. But he seems to avoid holding another press conference as the fawning press may be finding its backbone and he doesn’t have an answer for his C-Span promises on the health care debate.
Boxed In
Reid is losing control of the Senate. He no longer has a filibuster proof majority and he will probably not get reelected. He is one very lame duck. Many of Pelosi’s party in the House see Brown’s stunning victory as a major wake up call. Any Democrat in the House who is not planning on retiring, will not be eager to sign on to any more far left government takeovers. So without Reid and Pelosi setting his agenda, and him still stuck in the anti-Bush mode, what can he do? As charming as he may be, he promised bipartisanship but really wasn’t serious about it, he hasn’t cultivated any relationships with conservatives. As Dennis Miller put it on O’Reilly last night, “I hope he’s an ideologue. If not, it means we have a dolt in the White House.”
President Obama has to realize that the job entails more than him just strutting and fretting his hour upon the stage, and get down to work and that means following Clinton’s lead and working with the Republicans. There are a lot of ways to improve Health Care without spending a trillion dollars (e.g., tort reform), stop bashing business when you need business to create jobs, drop cap and trade to fix global warming when oranges are freezing in Florida.
His inexperience continues to glow brightly. He better figure out what the job entails, quickly, and get busy with it. The referee just fired the gun signaling the end of the first quarter and Team Obama looks dazed and confused. Not a good sign, sports fans.
