Dr. Barack and Mr. Obama
The backlash is sharp as voters learn that Obama is not the man they thought he was.
By Victor Davis Hanson
National Review Online, September 18, 2009
No one imagined that Barack Obama, during his first nine months in office, would be falling in the polls even faster than George W. Bush did prior to 9/11. We all knew what Obama’s weaknesses were as he came into office — a lack of experience in foreign affairs, little knowledge of how private business works, and poor judgment concerning the extremist company he had kept in the past.
Instead, the real anger from independents arises over disappointment, false merchandising, and hypocrisy. It is real and deep — as is true of any animosity that arises from a sense of betrayal of former trust.
…through a series of incidents, Obama himself has alienated — perhaps permanently — millions of swing voters.
Obama’s real problem is not conservative rabble-rousers at town halls or Republican activists. Rather, it is the Democratic rank and file. They may rewarm with an improving economy, but for now they are discovering that just as Obama could take them individually to great heights last fall, so too he could soon bring them down collectively to unprecedented depths.
Phi Beta Iota: An Electoral Reform Act of 2009, and a Smart Nation – Safe Nation Act of 2010, would make all these problems go away and give Obama a shot at making real change, change we can believe in. Or he can stay the major domo that followed the village idiot into low-rent theater. We nailed it in ELECTION 2008: Lipstick on the Pig.
