The Obsolescence of Barack Obama

Wall Street Journal ^ | 8-11-10 | Fouad Ajami

[Justaham]

Not long ago Barack Obama, for those who were spellbound by him, had the stylishness of JFK and the historic mission of FDR riding to the nation's rescue. Now it is to Lyndon B. Johnson's unhappy presidency that Democratic strategist Robert Shrum compares the stewardship of Mr. Obama. Johnson, wrote Mr. Shrum in the Week magazine last month, never "sustained an emotional link with the American people" and chose to escalate a war that "forced his abdication as president."

A broken link with the public, and a war in Afghanistan he neither embraces and sells to his party nor abandons—this is a time of puzzlement for President Obama. His fall from political grace has been as swift as his rise a handful of years ago. He had been hot political property in 2006 and, of course, in 2008. But now he will campaign for his party's 2010 candidates from afar, holding fund raisers but not hitting the campaign trail in most of the contested races. Those mass rallies of Obama frenzy are surely of the past.

The vaunted Obama economic stimulus, at $862 billion, has failed. The "progressives" want to double down, and were they to have their way, would have pushed for a bigger stimulus still. But the American people are in open rebellion against an economic strategy of public debt, higher taxes and unending deficits. We're not all Keynesians, it turns out. The panic that propelled Mr. Obama to the presidency has waned. There is deep concern, to be sure. But the Obama strategy has lost the consent of the governed.

[ConservativeDude]

no, it is actually Jimmy Carter all over again

[The Sons of Liberty]

Not long ago Barack Obama, for those who were spellbound by him,

A lot of idiots voted for him because it was the "hip" thing to do. Never mind that he had never accomplished anything, never really worked and was a weak-minded marxist that hates this Country.

[USNBandit]

Bob Shrum is an idiot. His conclusion is right, but for all the wrong reasons.

[True_Kon]

There has not been a bigger sellout and weaker President in our history.

Obama’s only skill is to fool people. He is a satisfied puppet. Being a puppet doesn’t bother him.

He had a mandate, to reform Wall Street and he hired Summers and Geithner and re-appointed Bernanke. Summers, under Rubin, led the fight to take down Glass-Steagal act. Instead of auditing FED, he gave them BIGGER role and even more power. Instead of protecting civil liberties, he has expanded Patriot Act. Instead of cutting down the size of spy agencies, he started one from White House itself - the Cyber Security Center.

Comparing this coward to JFK is a sin.

[Snickering Hound]

Lyndon decided not to run for a second term in March 1968 making his party scramble for the 68’ nomination.

[pieceofthepuzzle]

Obama is exactly what one can expect from the ‘academic’ mindset. It's absolutely predictable. There are so many false assumptions surrounding higher education that have led us as a nation to where we are now. The bottom line is that the media, the political left, the academy, and the entertainment industry have collectively defined what being ‘smart’ means, and they are unequivocally wrong. This is a much longer discussion than a reasonable length post can adequately address, but so much of what is wrong in this country currently can be traced to the arrogance and ideology of the self-appointed intellectual elite.

[Venturer]

Barrack Obama has harmed this country more than World War 2.

[mojito]

Big as Reagan's mandate was, in two elections, the man was never bigger than his country. There was never narcissism or a bloated sense of personal destiny in him. He gloried in the country, and drew sustenance from its heroic deeds and its capacity for recovery. No political class rode with him to power anxious to lay its hands on the nation's treasure, eager to supplant the forces of the market with its own economic preferences.

Compare and contrast.

[Signalman]

The magic of 2008 can't be recreated, and good riddance to it. Slowly, the nation has recovered its poise. There is a widespread sense of unstated embarrassment that a political majority, if only for a moment, fell for the promise of an untested redeemer—a belief alien to the temperament of this so practical and sober a nation.

[FrankR]

[End Times Sentinel]

A lot of idiots voted for him because it was the "hip" thing to do.

[The Sons of Liberty]

A lot of idiots voted for him because it was the "hip" thing to do.

Well at least in one sense they will reap what they sowed - we're spending [throwing away] their, their children's, and their grandchildren's inheritance.

[SonOfDarkSkies]

Obama is only interested in one thing...Obama. It was never about the country or even Americans.

It is difficult being the effective captain of a ship when you don't like the ship, you hate the crew, and you are bored being at sea.

Obama isn't just a bad president, he is mentally ill (and pathological narcissism is only part of it). I believe this will become apparent in time.

[hcmama]

Obama—The New Coke of Presidents.

[Erasmus]

Maybe those kids are stupid because they’re young.

Or maybe they’re stupid because they’re stupid.

[swain_forkbeard]

“A lot of idiots voted for him because it was the “hip” thing to do.”

You went an’ found you a guru.
In an effort to find you a new you,
And maybe even raise your conscious level.

While you’re striving to find the right road,
There’s one thing you should know,
What’s hip today, might become passe’.

What is hip?
Tell me, tell me, if you think you know.
What is hip?
If you’re really hip,
the question, “Will it show?”
You’re into a hip trip.
Maybe hipper than hip.
What is hip? - Tower of Power

[Scott from the Left Coast]

Well, one thing we can definitely see happening here...the indictments of Obama and his presidency have taken on a palpable sense of finality. Writers and commentators feel very comfortable saying he is an over and done failure, and he’s not coming back.

[End Times Sentinel]

Maybe those kids are stupid because they’re young.

Or maybe they’re stupid because they’re stupid.

It's kind of hard to tell, but since they've undoubtedly been inculcated to discard rationality, logic and history in favor of leftist dogma, one thing is for sure - they'll stay stupid.

[pingman]

“Stick a fork in’em; he’s done!”