Why Obama Is Losing the Political War

[Rheo]

Time Magazine:

Barack Obama is being politically crushed in a vise. From above, by elite opinion about his competence. From below, by mass anger and anxiety over unemployment. And it is too late for him to do anything about this predicament until after November's elections.

With the exception of core Obama Administration loyalists, most politically engaged elites have reached the same conclusions: the White House is in over its head, isolated, insular, arrogant and clueless about how to get along with or persuade members of Congress, the media, the business community or working-class voters. This view is held by Fox News pundits, executives and anchors at the major old-media outlets, reporters who cover the White House, Democratic and Republican congressional leaders and governors, many Democratic business people and lawyers who raised big money for Obama in 2008, and even some members of the Administration just beyond the inner circle.

On Friday, after the release of the latest bleak unemployment data — the last major jobs figures before the midterms — Obama said, "Putting the American people back to work, expanding opportunity, rebuilding the economic security of the middle class is the moral and national challenge of our time." But elites feel the President has failed to meet that challenge and are convinced he will be unable to do so in the remainder of his term. Moreover, there is a growing perception that Obama's decisions are causing harm — that businesses are being hurt by the Administration's legislation and that economic recovery is stalling because of the uncertainty surrounding energy policy, health care, deficits, housing, immigration and spending.

And that sentiment is spreading. Many members of the general public appear deeply skeptical of Obama's capacity to turn things around, especially, but not exclusively, those inclined to dislike him — Tea Partyers and John McCain voters, but also tens of millions of middle-class Americans, including quite a few who turned out for Obama in 2008.



But Obama has exacerbated his political problems not just by failing to enact policies that would have actually turned the economy around, but also by authorizing a series of tactical moves intended to demonize Republicans and distract from the problems at hand. He has wasted time lambasting his foes when he should have been putting forth his agenda in a clear, optimistic fashion, defending the benefits of his key decisions during the past two years (health care and the Troubled Asset Relief Program, for example) and explaining what he would do with a re-elected Democratic majority to spur growth.

Throughout the year, we have been treated to Obama-led attacks on George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh, Congressman Joe Barton (for his odd apology to BP), John Boehner (for seeking the speakership — or was it something about an ant?) and Fox News (for everything). Suitable Democratic targets in some cases, perhaps, but not worth the time of a busy Commander in Chief. In the past few days, we have witnessed the spectacle of the President himself and his top advisers wading into allegations that Republicans are attempting to buy the election using foreign money laundered through the Chamber of Commerce, combining with Karl Rove and his wealthy backers to fund a flood of negative television commercials. Not only is this issue convoluted and far-fetched, but it also distracts from the issues voters care about, frustrating political insiders and alienating struggling citizens (not that many are following such an offbeat story line). Feinting and gibing can't obscure those job numbers.

[Rheo]

This was a scathing article from Halperin. One almost concludes that he does really not like Obama.

Welcome to the club Mark.

[Casino67]

This was a scathing article from Halperin. One almost concludes that he does really not like Obama.

Welcome to the club Mark.

 

More and more are escaping from the Dark Side.

[Rheo]

Thanks to the Dark Side and media bias, we are stuck with him now. I thought it telling that Halperin, remember him from 2004 and the memo on how to report differently for Kerry than Bush, would write this.

 

 

Did you read Tappers article tonight on his questioning of Gibbs? He asks some good questions.

[Casino67]

Thanks to the Dark Side and media bias, we are stuck with him now. I thought it telling that Halperin, remember him from 2004 and the memo on how to report differently for Kerry than Bush, would write this.

 

 

Did you read Tappers article tonight on his questioning of Gibbs? He asks some good questions.

 

I saw he did a job on an Axelrod interview but couldn't find anything on Gibbs. Do you have the link?

 

Axelrod interview (text)

[Casino67]

A little blurb from Soros.

 

Soros: I Can’t Stop a Republican ‘Avalanche’

By SEWELL CHAN

George Soros, the billionaire financier who was an energetic Democratic donor in the last several election cycles but is sitting this one out, is not feeling optimistic about Democratic prospects.

 

“I made an exception getting involved in 2004,” Mr. Soros, 80, said in a brief interview Friday at a forum sponsored by the Bretton Woods Committee, which promotes understanding of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

 

“And since I didn’t succeed in 2004, I remained engaged in 2006 and 2008. But I’m basically not a party man. I’d just been forced into that situation by what I considered the excesses of the Bush administration.”

 

Mr. Soros, a champion of liberal causes, has been directing his money to groups that work on health care and the environment, rather than electoral politics. Asked if the prospect of Republican control of one or both houses of Congress concerned him, he said: “It does, because I think they are pushing the wrong policies, but I’m not in a position to stop it. I don’t believe in standing in the way of an avalanche.”

 

Source--NYT's

[Rheo]

Thanks to the Dark Side and media bias, we are stuck with him now. I thought it telling that Halperin, remember him from 2004 and the memo on how to report differently for Kerry than Bush, would write this.

 

 

Did you read Tappers article tonight on his questioning of Gibbs? He asks some good questions.

 

I saw he did a job on an Axelrod interview but couldn't find anything on Gibbs. Do you have the link?

 

Axelrod interview (text)

My mistake, it was Axelrod. So much blaming going on I forgot which one was doing it.