Obama Loses the Fancy Pants
Tomorrow, President Obama will propose an economic plan that includes, among other things, a payroll tax break. The NYTimes isn't happy about it:
The centerpiece of the job creation package that President Obama plans to announce on Thursday — payroll tax relief for workers and perhaps their employers — is neither his first policy choice nor that of many economists. But it is the one that they figure has the best chance of getting Republicans’ support.
Typically, the NYTimes blames the Republicans. But it's clear that among the Fancy Pants Constituency, Obama's star is fading. Richard Cohen, in the WaPo, returns from the Hamptons with this sorry news:
Barack Obama has lost the Hamptons.
That sentence is a fat target for ridicule, I know, since the Hamptons are often reviled as the playground of the ridiculously rich and the promiscuously silly — hardly the working-class Democratic base. As is usually the case, there’s some truth to the stereotype, but enough exceptions to that rule to make the White House pay attention. The Hamptons is where the Democratic energy, money and intellectual firepower of Manhattan goes for R&R. It’s just not another beach.
Over the Labor Day weekend, I went to a number of events in the Hamptons. At all of them, Obama was discussed. At none of them — that’s none — was he defended. That was remarkable. After all, sitting around various lunch and dinner tables were mostly Democrats. Not only that, some of them had been vociferous Obama supporters, giving time and money to his election effort. They were all disillusioned.
Let me call the roll. I am talking about are writers and editors, lawyers and shrinks, Wall Street tycoons and freelance photographers, hedge funders and academics, run-of-the-mill Democrats and Democratic activists. They were all politically sophisticated, and just a year ago some of them were still vociferous Obama supporters. No more.
He's right. That is easy to ridicule. And yet: it's sort of interesting that Obama's fanciest supporters are feeling deflated. And you can see that in the lede to the NYTimes piece -- gradually, taking root among the Hamptons set, is the idea that Obama is weak. That he's not up to the job.
Took them long enough.
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Re: Obama Loses the Fancy Pants
As go the Hamptons, so goes . . . what? I wonder.
Sep '10
Re: Obama Loses the Fancy Pants
The peasants are revolting and they dress funny don't they Mr. Cohen. More tea?
Jun '10
Re: Obama Loses the Fancy Pants
OBAMA LOSES FANCY PANTS
Great title Rob Long.
Dec '10
Re: Obama Loses the Fancy Pants
I still think it's all a set up. The left is preparing for a phoenix rising from the ashes Obama who will truly be historic, the second go round.
Re: Obama Loses the Fancy Pants
If he does not pull this off tomorrow night, the game will be up.
Dec '10
Re: Obama Loses the Fancy Pants
One of the biggest myths perpetuated in society for the past x-number of years is this: the wealthy all vote Republican. Now, I realize that Rob's excellent post here is more about the fading enthusiasm for Barack "The One" Obama among the elites on the Left, but this jumped out at me as I read the NYT piece. Perhaps it is because I happened to have grown up in the wealthiest area in the midwest (the North Shore of Chicago) and saw (and heard) first-hand just how liberal all of my friends parents were. My father was a pastor at a church in the area so we lived in the parsonage and my family was probably one of the "poorest" in my high school, and I could not believe how many people in our area voted for Clinton and Kerry.
These CEO's and exec's were happily handing over their hard-earned money to liberal candidates and causes, I believe, to assuage whatever guilt they might have had and to be invited to cooler parties when celebrities and politicians came to town.
Does anyone know if there are stats to back my anecdotal evidence up?
Thanks!
Dec '10
Re: Obama Loses the Fancy Pants
Paul A. Rahe
If he does not pull this off tomorrow night, the game will be up. · Sep 7 at 8:53am
The question is whether or not he can muster his master orator skills and convince those who are now less easily blinded by his light that more of the same is the radical and revolutionary change they've been waiting for. Sadly (for him, at least) many know the trick behind the magic now and will abstain from applause.
Mar '11
Re: Obama Loses the Fancy Pants
Paul A. Rahe
If he does not pull this off tomorrow night, the game will be up. · Sep 7 at 8:53am
I brought it up last week, and I'll bring it up again. What's the chance of a primary challenge if his speech is a flop? The stars seem to be coming into alignment.
May '10
Re: Obama Loses the Fancy Pants
Obama loses Fancy Pants? Like he had the ghost of Bob Hope to begin with?
Dec '10
Re: Obama Loses the Fancy Pants
I would hazard a guess that those CEO's are much less political than industrial and put their money where they believe they can get the best return on investment. In other words, they support who they suppose will be the victor in hopes of sharing the spoils and because being on the wrong side can be costly for their interests.
May '10
Re: Obama Loses the Fancy Pants
R.J. Moeller: One of the biggest myths perpetuated in society for the past x-number of years is this: the wealthy all vote Republican.
Does anyone know if there are stats to back my anecdotal evidence up?
Spend some time at OpenSecrets.org
It's a fantastic site to see who is pulling who's strings. For example:
Obama's bundlers are mostly from Wall Street
Dec '10
Re: Obama Loses the Fancy Pants
His speech will contain the distillate of empty statesmanship, proposing a repetition of the same spending once called stimulus and now labeled jobs—with no shovels attached—that has already failed, with an emphasis on his most visible trademark, the mother of all pointing fingers assigning blame first on the past, then on troubles abroad, and most inauspiciously for our economic recovery which this solemn occasion transformed into political fanfare was intended to promote, on the people sitting across from his teleprompter.
Our historic first Islamic apostate president personifies history when he keeps repeating himself as farce.
Jun '10
Re: Obama Loses the Fancy Pants
Other than hiring a dog groomer which he pays for personally, or giving speeches and forcing the networks to employ people to cover them, Obama, like any other President, doesn't create jobs. He has spent the last 21/2 years demonizing corporate profits and wildly flooding our economy with regulations that are drowning private investment and suffocating initiative and creativity. So now he's going to give a speech and everything will change? I am with Jim Demint...put it in a letter and send it. Let the CBO score it. More rhetoric won't cut it.
Oct '10
Re: Obama Loses the Fancy Pants
The King Prawn
Paul A. Rahe
If he does not pull this off tomorrow night, the game will be up. · Sep 7 at 8:53am
The question is whether or not he can muster his master orator skills ... Sadly (for him, at least) many know the trick behind the magic now and will abstain from applause. · Sep 7 at 8:59am
I was with KP the first time - all this negative stuff can be wiped out by a week-long burst of "comeback kid", "strange new respect", "pivots to the middle", "greatest triangulation since Euclid" stories, nicely counterpointing the "Republicans go too far", "GOP establishment abandons X" conventional wisdom.
They don't need journolist to march in step. And march in step they will.
Aug '10
Re: Obama Loses the Fancy Pants
How about tax increases on:
Surely his base would rush to support these measures, right?
Aug '10
Re: Obama Loses the Fancy Pants
This made me laugh out loud!
Thankfully, I'm alone in the office today, so I can laugh as loud as I like.
May '10
Re: Obama Loses the Fancy Pants
There must be a lot of bhind-the-scenes talk among Democratic fatcats about the unthinkable: dumping President Obama. But, because of his "Historic Presidency" (read: because of racial politcs) that's well-nigh impossible.
If Obama is nudged, or pushed, aside--and I'm not saying it's likely--it will happen in a flash. The Obama path to nomination is very strong, but brittle. It will be a fait acompli before most of us even know it is happening.
It will take a whole lot of people in the Democratic party sending subliminal messages to each other, giving each other permission to betray him.
If--if!--Obama does not get the nomination, it won't be because his opponent won 52% of the delegates. Whatever the outcome, it will be a 90-10 proposition.
May '10
Re: Obama Loses the Fancy Pants
Obama will not be primaried or nudged aside. Blacks would abandon the party in droves. They wouldn't go to the GOP, mind you, but they would simply tune out.
Aug '10
Re: Obama Loses the Fancy Pants
E.J., what if Hillary ran with a V.P. of color? And by color I don't mean brown.
And since we are speculating and confabulating, I aver that Zombie Reagan would eat Ghost Hope Fancy Pants alive, er, post-alive, but I would enjoy watching it any way.
I never thought I would want to see another Clinton run for the White House. The world has turned upside down.
But like a zombie-ghost smack down, it would be a hoot to watch.
Mar '11
Re: Obama Loses the Fancy Pants
Remember when Gail Collins seriously suggested that President Bush and Vice-President Cheney resign early so Nancy Pelosi could become president, thus ushering in the Obama era several months early? Why don't we start suggesting that Obama and Biden resign, allowing John Boehner to become president. Someone needs to start a petition drive.