Welcome to the Friday’s with the ‘hammer thread. As usual Dr. K. cuts through the propaganda and lays The One bare. Obama is dropping not because he is too laid back, cool or too nice (he is none of those) but because he is too Left. He misread the results of the 2006 and 2008 elections and being the narcissist that he is, thought that the change that the country wanted was Great Society liberalism. For those who thought “things can’t get worse and let’s give this charismatic newcomer who as an added bonus happens to be a minority, a chance” – well they did get worse and are you happy with him now? Just wait until health care passes and you paycheck is further eviscerated. In my opinion Obama’s worst mistake was to not concentrate on job creation through traditional methods of tax cuts and incentives – instead he passed a massive stimulus which will hang as an albatross around our necks for decades, and which has not created any new jobs at all. Also he rushed through an attempt to take over one-sixth of the economy with his misguided health care reform plan which the public does not like or want.
What went wrong? A year ago, he was king of the world. Now President Obama’s approval rating, according to CBS, has dropped to 46 percent — and his disapproval rating is the highest ever recorded by Gallup at the beginning of an (elected) president’s second year.
A year ago, he was leader of a liberal ascendancy that would last 40 years (James Carville). A year ago, conservatism was dead (Sam Tanenhaus). Now the race to fill Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat in bluest of blue Massachusetts is surprisingly close, with a virtually unknown state senator bursting on the scene by turning the election into a mini-referendum on Obama and his agenda, most particularly health care reform.
A year ago, Obama was the most charismatic politician on earth. Today the thrill is gone, the doubts growing — even among erstwhile believers.
Liberals try to attribute Obama’s political decline to matters of style. He’s too cool, detached, uninvolved. He’s not tough, angry or aggressive enough with opponents. He’s contracted out too much of his agenda to Congress.
These stylistic and tactical complaints may be true, but they miss the major point: The reason for today’s vast discontent, presaged by spontaneous national Tea Party opposition, is not that Obama is too cool or compliant but that he’s too left.
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Ideas matter. Legislative proposals matter. Slick campaigns and dazzling speeches can work for a while, but the magic always wears off.
It’s inherently risky for any charismatic politician to legislate. To act is to choose and to choose is to disappoint the expectations of many who had poured their hopes into the empty vessel — of which candidate Obama was the greatest representative in recent American political history.
Obama did not just act, however. He acted ideologically. To his credit, Obama didn’t just come to Washington to be someone. Like Reagan, he came to Washington to do something — to introduce a powerful social democratic stream into America’s deeply and historically individualist polity.
Read the rest here.
Tags: Charles Krauthammer
