Posted on 09/04/2011 3:24:23 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
When Barack Obama draws criticism from Republicans and conservatives, it’s about as much of a breaking news flash as Dog Bites Man. We begin to move into Man Bites Dog territory, however, when a mounting wave of unrest comes from his own left flank – a scenario which has not only come to pass, but shifted into a significantly higher gear this past week. One of his latest detractors is found coming from the sector which would normally contain his biggest cheerleaders. This just in from Michael Tomasky at the Daily Beast.
More dispiriting news, this time about the White House overturning the EPA’s proposed new rules on smog. That comes a few hours after the jobs report from Friday morning, one of the bleakest yet. And it comes a few days in advance of what everyone expects will be a small-thinking, modest, blah jobs speech by the president. It’s not only getting to the point where it’s getting hard to see him winning reelection. It’s getting to the point where it’s hard to imagine people taking him seriously for the remaining 14 months of his current term…
I keep thinking back lately to that candidate and team I watched in 2008. The candidate really had his finger on something. The team almost never made a serious mistake. When a mistake did happen, they did a respectable job of digging their way out of it. They had some fight in them. Well, I’ve learned something new from these folks: Up until now, I’ve thought that running a strong presidential campaign is a sign that one can probably govern fairly well too. But there appears to be little correlation between the two.
Tomasky’s article is not coming from some default position of criticizing the White House. In fact, he goes to great lengths to continue the recent meme about how Republicans are intentionally fighting job growth to damage the president’s reelection prospects. (An interesting theory, all things considered. It’s as if they seem to believe that there’s a magical switch deep in the bowels of the US Capital Building which could suddenly put everyone back to work, but John Boehner is refusing to flip it so the GOP can pick up a few more seats next year.)
But the complaints being aired are interesting none the less. A couple of them are the usual recent gripes about Obama “backing down” on the ozone regulations and “giving in to the Republicans” on spending cuts. But the one I found the most telling was the comment, “a small thinking, modest, blah jobs speech..”
What is driving President Obama from a position where he can exert any real influence on the political process – even from inside his own party – is not failed or detrimental policies. (Though there have been more than a few of those.) It’s the image he has come to project of being completely impotent in the face of any opposition, petulant when people fail to immediately go along with his brilliant vision, and incapable of wielding the power of the Oval Office to any tangible extent.
This isn’t exactly something new, either. The first warning signs should have come when Obama was negotiating the extension of the Bush tax cuts. Instead of turning the chore over to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, (as he did on so many other issues like the health care law) he appointed himself chief negotiator with the GOP. Obama wanted the middle class tax cuts, but wanted to end the one for the highest rates. The Republicans, on the other hand, wanted all of the tax cuts. So Obama compromised by giving the GOP everything they wanted, which included the piece Obama wanted. I remember doing a radio hit during that period where I characterized the negotiations like this:
REPUBLICANS: OK, Mr. President. What we want is for you to buy us this really expensive dinner, complete with filet mignon, truffles and a bottle of sixty year old scotch. We know it’s expensive, but if you’ll do this, we’ll let you buy us lunch too. And that’s going to cost a lot less.
OBAMA: (scratching chin) Well… I really did want to buy you lunch. OK. I’ll take it!
Not exactly Donald Trump level deal making skills on display there…
There were more examples where his base was disheartened, but they were just leading up to the speech debacle this week. Without rehashing the entire thing, it was one of the most childish, petulant displays of an ineffective temper tantrum I’ve seen in ages. But perhaps the worst part – at least in the eyes of his progressive supporters – was that he once again immediately backed down the moment Boehner showed the slightest sign of resistance. And now he is scheduling one of the most rare of Washington occasions – an address to a joint session of Congress which is not the State of the Union speech – and even his die-hard supporters seem to be considering watching a re-run of Benny Hill that night instead. Nobody seems to think this will be more than another flaccid campaign appearance which will waste one of the chief executives’ most powerful tools for zero results.
Moves like this leave the Democrats adrift in terms of strategy, with the titular head of their party effectively Missing in Action on the political battlefield. Is it any wonder so many of them are throwing up their hands in dismay? It’s not that Obama isn’t pursuing the correct policies to make them happy. It’s that he’s completely ineffective in getting any of them accomplished, despite controlling the White House and the upper chamber of Congress.
All of this brings us back our joint entry and exit question: can a sitting president ever become completely irrelevant in American politics? And has Barack Obama already achieved that dubious distinction?
I wish he was irrelevant.
If we could somehow harness the power of all the deceased presidents spinning in their graves, we could tell the entire MiddleEast to buzz off.
So what COULD Obama possibly say in this speech to turn all this around?
He can still inflict plenty of damage. No way he’s irrelevant. In terms of a solution he’s still relevant because his anti-American policies are the main problem behind the suppression of the economic engine.
Makes you wonder if this is some kind of coordinated effort to try and regain the Independent voters. I mean, consider that Obama is the most radical leftwing President we have ever had. Of course the nuts on the left still think he is too centrist and want him to enforce a strict Marxist redistribution so they will support him no matter what he does because they won’t ever vote for a Republican. So maybe they are orchestrating this stunt to try and convince the centrists that Obama is not a far lefty and this allows Obama to triangulate prior to the election.
“What could Obama say...”
I resign.
(well, I can dream, can’t I?)
What the President hasn’t been able to do is find a consensus, even within his own party. It doesn’t even appear that he is trying. So his broad principles and sweeping platitudes don’t even make it out of committee when it comes to specific legislation in the Congress.
If he were able to have some working lunches with his former colleagues in the Senate and hammer out a bill that had 52 Senators as co-sponsors on the day that it was introduced, he could stand up to the Tea Party Conservatives in the House. But that doesn’t come from simple speechmaking. It comes from old-fashioned politicking, something this President seems to avoid.
Who wouldn't?
What a dope.
I guess when one thinks one is a Supreme Being, one has no need to politic. That is hard work and requires diplomacy. It would take away from one’s golf time.
I think one would just gather all the renegades together and tell them to eat their peas. On television, where one could show whatever percentage of the viewing poplulace that one is above all of the bickering of these children./s
Well, Jazz (wtf?), he not only had his campaign to spread his phony credentials, he had the MSM covering completely to hide ANY info that would make him look bad. A bunny rabbit could get elected under those conditions. Especially if he was black and white.
“A bunny rabbit could get elected under those conditions”
Only a Bunny Rabbit with a Pancake on its head. Anybody have that picture handy? LOL
I have been wondering along the same lines. He is not going to lose the far left wing of his party. It is clear that he is too far left for the center. Why not have a major hissy fit by and between his highness and the Marxists to demonstrate his centrism. Only problem is he is ineffective in every area. Obama's problem is his juvenille incompetence.That is obvious to everyone.
I am running for president. Why can't I just eat my pancake?
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