Nominal Democrat Pat Cadell gets to the rub of Obama and the Democrat’s problem this election year. Because President Obama is so far from Candidate Obama he can’t do what Reagan did – go out and say “Stay the course.” Reagan could because once he became POTUS he did what he said he’d do as a candidate. Things were rotten as the first midterm of his presidency approached. Voters took it out on Republicans. They did not reject Reagan explicitly. This midterm is unlike 1982 in a very important particular – It’s a referendum on Obama and the Democrats as much or more than it is on the economy in general. No one thought Reagan overreached. No one thought Reagan betrayed his own campaign. Obama does not have this luxury. He has overreached and he has betrayed his stated goal of being post-partisan. Voters were impatient in 1982. In 2010 they are angry, startled, and scared.
This year’s election is closer to 1994. Both Clintons were ‘on the ballot’ that year. They were both spanked. This year’s power couple up for a beating are Obama and Pelosi. Yes, the economy is bad which hurts the party in power. Yes, the healthcare law remains unpopular. Yes, Obama has made a series of unforced, silly, errors. But the issue this year is Obamalosi. It is personal. The most energized voters are hankering to punish Obama. It is telling that Obama is still not coming in for most of the blame for the economic meltdown- yet Democrats are still polling horribly. Why the disconnect? If this election was mostly about the economy the Democrats could expect to lose some seats, but survive. Yet, they are expected to suffer a blow out. If things remain on track for a Democratic slaughter it will be hard to escape the fact that Obama and Pelosi are the reason.
A sense of betrayal has set in. Personally, I blame ill-informed Obama voters as much as I blame Obama for this. Obama changed his rhetoric after winning, he did not change his spots. If elections in this country were more than feel good beauty contests far more serious questions would have been asked about Obama in 2008. Many Obama voters feeling betrayed now need to question their decision-making process when entering a voting booth.
Regardless, this year it seems many of those same voters will take out their frustration on Obama by voting the only way that will express their disgust. They’ll pull the lever for Republicans. Meanwhile, if Obama calls for the nation to ‘stay the course’ Democrats will lose even more voters. “The course” is the problem. Obama is the problem. He’s got two months to change this inconvenient fact. Can he? I doubt it. Does he even want to? I doubt it even more.
Whatever trust was there is gone. All the recent POTUS’ that preceded him, from different backgrounds; with different agendas; and certainly with different political styles, the one thing all of them have in common, imo, is they loved this country and the people in it. I have never gotten the feeling that BO does. There is no there there. He’s been compared to everybody under the sun and resembles none of them. He’s nobody. He’s a constructed narrative. The problem is the narrative has bumped up against reality and he doesn’t have the grounding in principles to stand firm. Even if you don’t agree with someone, you can appreciate a steadfast quality. Real leaders have that. Barack Obama is no leader. He really is shrinking in stature. I wouldn’t be surprised if the “puppet masters” ask that he “spend more time with his family” after the first term. Nothing would surprise me.
Does he even want to? I doubt it even more.
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Obama hears a different drummer in his head. All of the talking head that try to explain “Obama” are just talking nonsense because their points of reference are based on “normal” political behavior. Obama doesn’t take six vacations, ignore the “work” of President or show contempt for his sycophants because he is politically “tone deaf”; he enjoys p*ssing people off. IMO, he will enjoy watching the Dem party go down in flames Nov. 2, 2010.
His job all along has been to destroy the Democratic Party.
He didn’t do it alone. He had a lot of willing co-conspirators.
Does Obama want a second term? Yes, sadly, I think so. He’s a miserable guy, always has been. He’s our own little Nixon without the political talent. Dick didn’t want to go, this dick doesn’t either. I believe he must be helped like Nixon was helped. Can we help you out Obama?
Senior party and elected officials who rigged, cheated and lied to get Obama the nomination are also to blame and will be punished severely down to the state level. Rigging rules, ignoring serious violations, name calling their own voters all in the name of love of Obama has to have a serious price paid such as expulsion from office in government or the party. These were the enablers because it was his “time” irregardless of what the public wanted or needed. Ramming through heinous legislation so that Obama would have a legacy is not turning out the way they planned. They all need to go and the public knows it. The smart ones retired.
Historical leaders were ordinary people who ‘rose to the occasion,’ given the majesty of this country, and the seriousness of the job. Obama will never do this, because he can’t, everything will always be about him. Eventually, even the diehards will recall the wisdom of accepting the fact that pigs really can’t fly, even if they wanted to.
It still surprises me that his Real Clear Politics average for all the polls is still at 46+%. I just can’t imagine that many people think he is doing a good job. He always appears whiny to me and not able to speak to any real issues. As much as I despised what Bush and Cheney did while in office I almost dispise what Obama is doing more. He does not appear to really understand what is going on with our military and I think our military leaders are running circles around him – he also has no one in his administration that understands the military. I think one characteristic of leadership is to select good support personal to assist you and with the exception of Axelrod whose only ability was to get him elected with (covert support of many people whom we will never really know by name) he has no one of stature. I don’t include Hillary Clinton because she is stand alone and I don’t think it was his choice. I think his handlers said do this and he reluctantly did as he was told. I have yet to see any creativity from his administration. I read of a “lost decade” in the economy – I already have felt a lost eight years with Bush and now at least four lost years with Obama.
Obama hasn’t changed his rhetoric. All of the things that Democrats are complaining about now were part of his platform during the election. Democrats just weren’t paying attention — they were too busy hearing what they wanted to hear.
I don’t believe POTUS’s favorability numbers anymore than I believe the unemployment numbers. We’re being lied to about everything. The economy is in the hopper, propped up by the Fed and Treasury. People are losing faith in the Rule of Law because of its inequitable application [there was a recent SEC case where two hedge-fund managers, found guilty of inside trading to the tune of $14 million, were fined $600,500 without any criminal charges because they "lost" the money. Boo-hoo.]. The on-going, endless wars [mission accomplished notwithstanding] have bled the country’s treasure for nearly a decade and will continue to do so. The Wall St. wizards are still playing casino games, sticking the American taxpayer with any and all liability. And our borders remain unsecured and porous.
Obama is/was a fraud from the start. Will he run again? I don’t know and I don’t think it really matters. Either side of the aisle, we’ll end up with another frontman, pretending to be whatever they think we want to hear. But whoever he/she is, the winner won’t represent the American public. We’ve been had, bigtime. And the circus continues to wild applause, rivival meetings and revisionist history.
Am I gloomy? Just a tad.
I second your comments. It feels like years that I’ve been in this rut. Have I ever thought politicians were not on the side of the rich? Nope. Rigged game.