It was not a referendum on Barack Obama, who in every poll remains one of the most popular politicians in America. It was not a rejection of universal health care, which Massachusetts mandated (with Scott Brown’s State Senate vote) in 2006. It was not a harbinger of a resurgent G.O.P., whose numbers remain in the toilet. Brown had the good sense not to identify himself as a Republican in either his campaign advertising or his victory speech.
And yet Tuesday’s special election was a dire omen for this White House. If the administration sticks to this trajectory, all bets are off for the political future of a president who rode into office blessed with more high hopes, good will and serious promise than any in modern memory. It’s time for him to stop deluding himself. Yes, last week’s political obituaries were ludicrously premature. Obama’s 50-ish percent first-anniversary approval rating matches not just Carter’s but Reagan’s. (Bushes 41 and 43 both skyrocketed in Year One.) Still, minor adjustments can’t right what’s wrong.
Obama’s plight has been unchanged for months. Neither in action nor in message is he in front of the anger roiling a country where high unemployment remains unchecked and spiraling foreclosures are demolishing the bedrock American dream of home ownership. The president is no longer seen as a savior but as a captive of the interests who ginned up the mess and still profit, hugely, from it.
In last weekend’s Washington Post/ABC News poll, 42 percent of Americans chose the economy as the country’s most pressing concern. Only 5 percent picked terrorism, and 2 percent Afghanistan. Obama’s highest approval ratings are now on foreign policy and national security issues — despite the relentless hammering from the Cheney right — but voters don’t care.
Does health care matter? Not as much as you’d think after this yearlong crusade. In the Post/ABC poll, the issue was second-tier — at 24 percent. Obama has blundered, not by positioning himself too far to the left but by landing nowhere — frittering away his political capital by being too vague, too slow and too deferential to Congress. The smartest thing said as the Massachusetts returns came in Tuesday night was by Howard Fineman on MSNBC: “Obama took all his winnings and turned them over to Max Baucus.”
Frank Rich expresses the same concerns, and shares the same observations, that I hear from my liberal friends constantly.
We voted for transformational President, and Obama often seems to timid, or careful, to fully embrace his destiny. But if he doesn't, just like Frank Rich points out, there may well be yet another stunning upset in 2012.
(You can read the rest of Frank Rich's eye opening article by clickiing the title.)
I have been saying this right along. If Obama does not get up off his butt and take a real interest in what this nation is suffering, it is more than likely we could really be faced with a Palin presidency. That alone should send shivers through the nation alone.
ReplyDeleteThe Right has taken advantage of this detached president, more comfortable with running around speechifying, then in governing. Those Tea Partiers are not an abborration. Dissatisfaction is oozing from the voters across the nation and MA is not alone.
I would much prefer that the GOP disappears for awhile but though they were declared "DOA" last year they sure have made a strong showing recently. A Palin presidency is too frightening to contemplate but if the Dems do not resurrect the promises made during the campaign and tell Obama to get busy, we may surely be looking at another neocon administration sending us to war under the premise of "god's will" once again.
I read the article differently. I had a long discussion with a family member last night about what all this means, and he had the typical right-wing take on things.
ReplyDeleteThe best explanation I have seen comes from Jack Cafferty on CNN. The Democrats are clinging to the far left strategy, but you can never get them say how they are going to pay for it. (Remember actually paying for things?) The Rebiblicans are cliging to the far right strategy, and delude themselves (and my family member) that the reason they lost Congress and the Presidency is that they are not far enough right and didn't appeal to their "base."
The reason they lost and the Dems are in such a pickle, IMHO, is that most of the country is in the middle and doesn't trust the Rebiblicans or the Democrats. Independent voters, like me, are going "from one rail of the Titanic to the other" in voting for first one side then the other, trying to get SOMEBODY to face a little reality.
I just finished a great book by David Walker, the nonpartisan head of the Govt Accountability Office concerning how much debt we really are facing after 8 years of GWB and a year of Mssr. Obama. I recommend you get it and NOW! Gryphen, I know you are a big advocate for kids, and if you are worried about their futures, you should read this.
NO, the problem is not that Mr. Obama is not cleaving to his base, any more than the problem is that McCain and Idiot didn't cleave to theirs. It's that this ship of state is cruising at flank speed into a real iceberg and nobody in Washington is doing Anything except spending more of our children's money.
Sorry. Rant over.
Jim
Obama's reaction to all of this is to scale back more and move father to the right, when the reason for Massachusetts et al is that voters are angry he is spineless and moderate. They want him to move farther to the left and to stop compromising and watering down. They want him to firmly take charge and push through. They don't want bipartisanship. They want something significant done to help them, not the corporations that from now on will have total control of our government by way of the tons of money they can spend. We have eight months and then that's it. Nothing significant will be done to help us. But plenty will be done that will result in the deterioration of our lives; dirty air, polluted water, toxic food, extortion that will divert our paychecks to insurance companies, banks, etc.
ReplyDeleteMany of us are not looking forward to leaving the party but, we will if need be. I've lost all hope for this admin. and truly hope we have a primary in 2012.
ReplyDeleteJim is closest to what I've heard from MA Brown voters. Lots of frustration at special deals cut over hc reform . A strong, charismatic campaigner like Ted K could' e overcome that, but MC was not that kind of campaigner .
ReplyDeleteVery clever nuanced word-smithing by Rich who knows when you use the word "but", you can ignore everything that came before it. Rich, understanding this slight-of-pen uses the more oblique "And yet...".
ReplyDeleteTo paraphrase Rich,
"This (Brown's elction) wasn't about Obama; it wasn't a rejection of veritable bribery to push health care along, and it most definitely wasn't suggestive of an invigorated Republican party. No, no , no.
"And yet ("but") unless the administration can make a quick "180" or at least a sharp left turn the 2012
election is a "pic 'em".
Rich, whether bullying a novice producer in his or her first foray on Broadway when he was the New York Times theater critic or in his current gig, has mastered playing both ends against the middle.
"This political disaster for the democrats says nothing about Obama BUT he's no longer perceived to possess extraordinary powers to transform American politics and life. Neither is he seen as the archenemy of the elite and monied, he is seen as their "captive".
This was a hit piece on Obama by Rich, no different from the kind of scathing reviews he would give plays or musicals that didn't measure up to his unarticulated, mercurial, and often contradictory standards.
As scientists now know, the Titanic's problem was not
ReplyDeletestriking the iceberg. The safest course would have been to steer directly into it while reversing engines. This would have compressed about 9% of the ships forward hull but the water-tight compartments would not have been breached.
Similarly, like the crew of the Titanic, Obama's administration has made numerous risk-laden decisions which made a collision with the right, independents, and even some democrats inevitable and it, too, is attempting to make an end run around the problem.
Obama's on the clock. The crew of the White Star line had only a few minutes to avoid its fate. The president is now down to a few months and the hope of a last second "Hail Mary" that will give him a chance to act quintessentially presidential, or at least somewhat effective as a leader.
Obama is a delegater, which is good, but not good enough for a tough PR battle.
ReplyDeleteObama or some of his supporters needed to be on TV and in op eds in the news papers and speaking at high press coverage events every single day pushing health care.
Granting that MSM is heavily populated with conservative talking heads and their conservative guests, but there would be a way to keep that PR machine whirring along, just like the Republicans did, just like Bush did, day in and day out, pushing the agenda, pushing back at the Republicans.
Obama turned health care over to the Congress and sat by and did virtually nothing but be a spectator for almost a year as universal health care, single payer, government sponsored opt in, medicare opt in... were destroyed by the blue dogs, the party of "Nein" and people like Nelson and Lieberman.
The President has to support his Congressmen, has to support his Governors, openly, so that the party and the public see that support.
Obama went behind closed doors to deal with banking and insurance giants and let them rip off the public via the WH.
That works OK for RepoCons, it will not work for independents and liberals and progressives and liberal libertarians. We won't stand for it.
Not to be picky but the Titanic's "water tight" compartments weren't water tight. All of them were completely open at the top. Like a water wheel, when one filled it pulled the open leading edge of the next compartment under the surface filling each in succession. Had only the first one or two sections been partially flooded, arguably the ship would have stayed afloat but the long rip flooded too much of the ship to allow it to stay afloat.
ReplyDeleteThe analogy does work though. Health care is flooded, his new war in Pakistan has flooded another compartment, the continuing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have flooded two more compartments. Each lie, each failed agenda allows negative PR to overflow into the next issue.
How much water can the American ship of state under Commander Obama take on and remain afloat?