Posted on 08/30/2010 9:41:18 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
You’ve got to wonder when White House political guru David Axelrod will look at the churning pools of poll data and, like Chief Brody in “Jaws,” say: “We’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
The analogy isn’t quite right, because in the movie, the shark ultimately loses. It’s hard to imagine a scenario where Barack Obama and Axelrod victoriously paddle away on the flotsam of their own political wreckage. But in one sense, the analogy works just fine: This White House is rudderlessly lost at sea and inadequate to the challenges it faces.
At the beginning of the year, retiring seven-term Rep. Marion Berry (D-Ark.) recounted a conversation he had with the president. Obama’s push for health-care reform in the face of public opposition reminded Berry of the Clinton-era missteps that led to the Republican rout of 1994. “I began to preach last January that we had already seen this movie and we didn’t want to see it again because we know how it comes out,” Berry told a newspaper.
Or, to quote Brody in “Jaws 2”: “But I’m telling you, and I’m telling everybody at this table that that’s a shark! And I know what a shark looks like, because I’ve seen one up close. And you’d better do something about this one, because I don’t intend to go through that hell again!”
Convinced that his popularity was eternal, Obama responded by saying, yes, but there’s a “big difference” between 1994 and 2010 - “you’ve got me.”
The funny thing is, Obama might have been right. Because things might be much worse for Democrats in 2010 than they were in 1994 - and the big difference might well be Barack Obama.
In fairness, the biggest difference may be the economy, which in political terms should be fitted for a pine box. Of course, Mr. Credibility, Joe Biden, says it’s doing great, sounding like the shopkeeper in the Monty Python “Dead Parrot sketch” who insists the bird’s “just resting.”
In 1994, when the Contract with America Congress took control, the jobless rate was 5.6 percent. Today it’s 9.5 and may well climb higher.
While some people - such as yours truly - think Obama and the Democrats deserve much of the blame, one can be agnostic on all that and recognize that voters have lost faith in the Democratic Party. Already, Democrats in tight races are distancing themselves from the White House, and pretty much everyone has stopped trying to make lemonade out of the ObamaCare lemon.
Moreover, Obama has lost his connection with the American people. On issue after issue he seems determined to craft his responses in a way that will annoy the most people possible.
Some liberals claim that Obama’s mistakes stem from not being progressive enough, while others insist that he’s played his cards right, but we need to wait a bit longer for the payoff.
I’m dubious on both counts. But what’s clear now is that the president who claimed to be the personification of a world-historical moment is lost at sea, and not even a bigger boat will save him.
The only thing’s he appears good at is taking vacations, golfing ,and flying all over the world on Air Force One.
people do seem to be saying he doesnt care because he wont run again. i dont agree. his ego is too huge to even contemplate the defeat not running again would mean. he actually thinks his enormous personal talent and huge brain will win the day.
Never underestimate the power of a lying narcissist. ... Wag-the-Dog in 2012 is a definite possibility ...
He thinks that he won’t have to run again. He thinks he will be declared “President for Life” before the end of 2012.
Gee, I was told by all the smartest people that Mr. Skittles was scary smart. I think they got the scary part right - not so much on the smart thingy.
I’m constantly amazed that a leftist rag like the Boston Herald carries Jonah Goldberg’s column.
Talk about an oil and water combination!!!
(Jonah usually has some very on-target remarks and observations!! But, the Herald rarely does.)
He is an effete, arrogant academic who subtly insults his constituents every time he opens his mouth. That is the nub of his problem.
I concur. I do not think he will run again. I think he's already decided, and will announce it next year. One assumes that Hillary will step in to lead the Democrats. She has done more to further herself than Biden has.
-PJ
Similar statements were applied to Bill Clinton, just before and following his 1994 election debacle.
That was, of course, before Newt and the boys screwed the pooch and gave Bill Clinton a big boost toward re-election.
He may get a challenge similar to RFK's challenge to Johnson but it will have to come from the extreme left because they have the most to lose if Obambi starts to govern from the middle to save his presidency.
Hillary! is much to moderate to get any traction against him in a primary fight but even she could give him a couple of broadsides (pun intended) and weaken him for 2012.
“One assumes that Hillary will step in to lead the Democrats.”
That is one heck of a scary thought
Correction to prior post.
0bama IS the shark and swims with a whole pack of ‘em.
Dolphin schools fight off sharks.
Conservatives are bunching up in schools.
Even little fish make big formations of fish. See pix of Monterey Bay aquarium fish. http://dthorp.smugmug.com/photos/507044563_anMUS-L.jpg
(Note: this isn’t a formation in the form of a fish, but it does happen. It’s AMAZING.
But the economy turned around for Clinton thanks to the dot com revolution and technology bubble. That's not going to happen for Obama. The only thing that could save 0 is the economy improving dramatically and with his policies that's not going to happen.
Effete and arrogant, to be sure.
But, say what you will about academics, that charge doesn't stick. One need not agree with them, but at least they have the talent for being able to write and speak coherently and at length, and to marshal their arguments convincingly.
One cannot say the same about Obama. He is most certainly not an academic.
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