Obama voters: The thrill is gone

Chicago Tribune ^ | October 17, 2014 | by Clarence Page

[Oldeconomybuyer]

As President Barack Obama heads into the final half of his final term, many of us Americans wonder: Whatever happened to the fresh promise of that cheerfully charismatic optimist who dominated the political stage back in 2008?

Some of those who voted for him now say they're sorry they did.

Why is the thrill gone? I can think of three big reasons:

1. Public impatience. After six years in office, any president has been seen and heard too many times to satisfy the public's relentless appetite for something fresh and new.

2. An anti-incumbent reflex in news media. The most powerful media bias, I often have argued, is our bias against any political narrative that sounds like old news.

3. Obama's own distaste for the politicking that is an inevitable and, in many ways, an essential part of presidential leadership.

Gary Younge, at Britain's liberal The Guardian, observed that Obama's campaign slogan, "Yes we can," seems to have become "At least he tried."

The next two years offer him a big opportunity to try harder.

[fatnotlazy]

I've encountered the same with friends and family. They voted for Obama so they could be “a part of history” — ie, voting in the first black president. It didn't work out so well, but come 2016, they'll vote for the first woman president or the first Latino president, again because they want to be “part of history.” I asked whether it would be better to elect the candidate competent enough to do the job and was met with blank stares. These people think with body parts other than their brains...if they think at all.

[lowbridge]

“He reversed the recession with a stimulus that injected billions into the economy”

And WHERE did obama get those billions in the first place? Why, those billions were EXTRACTED from the economy in taxes! So, taking money out of the economy, giving it away to waste and fraud and cronyism, and what little that is left over gets put back into the economy, is a recipe for success?

[Diogenesis]

The undocumented Tyrant’s mask is OFF.

pRes_ _ent Obola is an undocumented Moslem
who hates America SO MUCH,
that every decision he imposes
is against either the American people or the
US Constitution .... or both.

[VeniVidiVici]

“Obama’s distaste for politicking”? That’s all the man does!

[Ted Grant]

It’s easier than that.

Those voters didn’t get the government goodies they expected.

[griswold3]

The Progressives now pick apart Obama as a leader when in fact it is their very ideology that reflect today’s decline.
Once again they are saying perhaps the wrong person was in charge instead of the wrong policies. Blaming the opposition is getting tiresome.
‘Barack of Roanoke We Saw You Coming’

[KevinB]

Well, it just shows how stupid libs are. It took them six years to figure out what we knew in five minutes.

[reformedliberal]

Anyone who voted for Obama in 2008 deserves ridicule.
Anyone who voted for Obama in 2012 deserves contempt.
_________________
Of course they do. And it makes no difference to them at all.
They puff up like toads and announce that They are Democrats and go on to proclaim how they are door knocking for the party this election. So there.

I so hope the ones I have confronted get all the doors slammed in their faces. Nothing seems to faze them. The most biting denouncements simply cause them to double down.

[atc23]

Obama is the classic narcissist with low self esteem. He knows he isn't deserving of respect so he turns it around to appear "above it all" - - his acolytes then have to resort to "he's just such a populist that the rules of Washington confound him! " - or - " Hes to brilliant to waste time playing the Beltway game" - or - " RACISM!"

[dowcaet]

Clarence Page is not stupid. He knows the real reasons why so many people are turning on the president but he’s too much of a liberal to admit it and certainly he won’t write the truth in an article. To people like Clarence Page liberalism can’t fail regardless of who’s leading the left at any given time.

[When do we get liberated?]

That was a true statement, it did inject billions (probably 3 of them) into the economy. The problem is it cost 1.2 trillion dollars...

[FreeAtlanta]

Unfortunately, I run into his “base” supporters all the time and to them it is an US (blacks, homosexuals, various leftists) against them attitude.

They refuse to see how bad he has been. They are not “band wagon” fans. They are completely on board even as the wagon is careening off the cliff.

I class them as total idiots, but that is probably being too nice.

[hinckley buzzard]

eerfully charismatic optimist?" More like Ominous totalitarian thug. Clarence Page is a sick man.

[glock rocks]

Ruby Ridge happened during the Bush presidency.

[Gay State Conservative]

Hey,Clarence....did it ever occur to you that “the thrill is gone” because a number of Americans have finally gotten around to reading “Rules For Radicals”?

[hinckley buzzard]

You might want to scratch the entry about Ruby Ridge. That was the work of George Herbert Walker Bush.

[Polyxene]

“The thrill is gone”

Poor Chrissie Matthews! What is he going to do for a tingle now?? LOL!!

[Yosemitest]

WRONG RINO.
Bush might have been in office,
but it was Bill and Hillary Clinton's Administration, with Janet Reno and Louis Freeh,
that directed and did the coverup of the investigation into the Ruby Ridge,
the Government MURDER of Weaver's 14 year old son Samuel, and the MURDER of Vicki Weaver,
while she was holding her baby in her arms at the front door of their cabin.

[Yosemitest]

And ,,, had the Clinton Administration NOTY done the COVERUP OF RUBY RIDGE, then Janet Reno and Louis Freeh, both, would have gone to jail !

[RipSawyer]

“Why is the thrill gone?”
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
It is gone because only the willfully ignorant, stupid types were ever thrilled. Those of us who understood reality were walking around after the 2008 election wondering if we could manage not to begin projectile vomiting and I am not joking, it was months before I began to feel anything like normal. I literally had a sick feeling and I know a lot of other people did too. I hope the idiots who voted for him have that same sick feeling now and cannot find relief for it. As crazy as John McCain is I still think he would have been far less of a liability to this country than this America hater that is desecrating the oval office.