Obama Versus Obama
President Barack Obama is more exasperated than ever as polls dip, critics multiply, and none of his massive borrowing seems to jump start a stalled economy. He seems bewildered that House Republicans did not immediately agree to his tax increases proposals, and confused over why his serial calls for civility are noted—but quickly forgotten. Obama is also perplexed that businesses—in theory flush with cash after massive layoffs and budget trimming—do not listen when he presses them to start hiring. He cannot quite fathom why his conservative critics do not fully appreciate his achievement of eliminating Osama bin Laden. And the more he now talks about illegal immigration, the wackier fly his metaphors and the more edgy the slurs. What happened to the legendary Obama, the "god" whom Newsweek deified in 2008, and who was declared the "smartest" president ever by historian Michael Beschloss?
In a word, the president is discovering that Barack Obama is now at war with Barack Obama. It is not just that the public has fathomed that what Obama says one day will change the next. It is more troublesome than that: Americans are catching on that what Obama now insists is true usually proves at odds with what Obama once asserted. So the nation is insidiously tuning him out—a novel and annoying experience for the president, who heretofore had received little criticism over his habitual inconsistencies and had assumed his formidable powers of rhetoric and his own landmark heritage would trump any scrutiny from nit-picky critics.
In the recent debt discussions, Obama insisted on "balance": he was to play the role of the great compromiser in the middle who would choose the sober and judicious course between unreasonable Tea Party ideologues and fossilized Pelosi liberals. But how can he sound credible about the recklessness of not authorizing a higher debt ceiling when he himself voted not to raise it in 2006—when the aggregate debt was roughly half of what it is now? In 2007 and 2008, Obama did not even show up to the votes for authorizing a higher ceiling.
But more importantly still, Obama has proposed three budgets that ran up nearly $5 trillion in new debt. He submitted a record deficit budget for 2012 that no one in the Senate—Democrats included—could go on the record voting for. His critics assert, as even his supporters wince, that the biggest deficit spender in the history of presidential administration can hardly talk credibly now about the need for higher revenue and taxes to pay for his own profligacy. It is almost as if Obama 3.0 is saying, "Please, by no means act as President Obama 2.0 did between 2009-2011, or as Senator Obama 1.0 did from 2006-2008."
As I explain in this essay for the Hoover Institution journal Defining Ideas, Obama has been his own worst enemy on nearly every single one of his major policy proposals as president. He has lost his credibility, which is why the public is tuning him out.
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Comments:
Jan '11
Re: Obama Versus Obama
People can not lead when they do not know where they are going.
May '10
Re: Obama Versus Obama
I'm still amazed that he ever had credibility.
Sep '10
Re: Obama Versus Obama
VDH, I love ya buddy, but I'm going to disagree. While you can point out endless tactical reversals, I challenge you to find strategic flipflops. He still wants to raise taxes and support green technologies and spend more.
I would argue that it is his bitter clinging to leftist philosophies that is causing him the most problems, both in the real world's responses to his policies and politically with the independents. You could make the argument that Bill Clinton changed his stripes, but I don't think you can say that about President Obama.
I think the public is tuning him out because his policies aren't working. None of the people I hang out with can remember what he said when he was senator, they're all too busy with their own lives. They do know what he said last year and they do know he promised things would get better. It's the failure that's getting him, not the hypocrisy.
Mar '11
Re: Obama Versus Obama
I'm with KTCat.
Mr Obama remains a Marxist, at heart. In order to hide this from the electorate he ran as a purple centrist - it's this which creates the apparent conflict with himself. But I doubt that he feels that conflict, himself. He knows the charade.
It's hard to believe that sufficient numbers of the electorate will be taken in by him again, but his poll numbers remain alarmingly high - they should be in the 20's.
Jun '10
Re: Obama Versus Obama
Nemesis has arrived on the field of battle. She will feast on his bones.
Dec '10
Re: Obama Versus Obama
Like a manipulated carnival spectator under the influence of a master hypnotist, our historic first Islamic apostate president’s suggestive powers have caused us to follow uncritically a voice heard leading from behind. Since he took the stage, we have believed the words he says but have been blind to what he does.
During this summer’s show, however, our PC-induced suspension of disbelief has slipped a notch, offering us a glimpse into the darker recesses of his nihilism—for what else would it be that motivated his infamous assertion that the country as chief executive of which he spent the most money ever to win election is no more exceptional than any other in the world?
We are finally learning, after noticing his misdirection, that we need not look beyond his impulsively scratching middle finger. It expresses more deeply than any telepromted pronouncement what lurks in a mind arrested in a state of rebellion against our constitutional order of limited government.
His noxious performance, though, is far from over. A mask fallen reveals usually an ugly sight. As his union pal said, if the power of persuasion fails, then it is time to use the persuasion of power.
Aug '11
Re: Obama Versus Obama
Partially agree with K T Cat, but the leftists who have grown to despise Obama do remember what he said and he hasn't been leftist enough for them.
The independents who thought Obama meant it when he talked about governing from the middle have learned otherwise.
However I expected "God damn America" to look pretty much like it does. Pardon the offensiveness of that phrase; it's an odd thing not to be able to quote a preacher from the pulpit in polite company.
Sep '10
Re: Obama Versus Obama
Wow, thanks for all the kind words!
How about this as an explanation for what's going on?
Obama is a deeply committed leftist. He's not stupid, though. When it's utterly, perfectly, crystal clear that his ideas aren't going to work, he changes individual ideas, but he does not change his commitment to academic progressivism. Hence, he still supports massive government spending, regulatory intervention and multinational foreign policy, but he's willing to change his mind on Predator strikes, Guantanamo and (so far just) mouthing things about the deficit.
He's not being hypocritical, he's just a very slow learner.
Dec '10
Re: Obama Versus Obama
It's actually simpler than that.
Obama is a poor politician, and he assumes the voters are all incredibly stupid.
Thus, he assumes that he can use the words "balanced approach" and "bridging the partisan divide" and the voters will instantly assume that he shares their desire for solutions that have enough stable support to have a chance of working. He can't understand how it is that voters see through him and realize he's only paying lip service to bipartisanship, compromise and balance.
Given that Congressional Republicans see through him too, they can hoist him with his own petard by making reasonable proposals that he will reject out of pure ideological stubbornness and his inflated sense of his own negotiating prowess. They let him box himself in with pronouncements about crises and urgency and deadlines, and then force him to capitulate to deals more favorable to them.
As for foreign and defense policy, he could hardly care less, so long as it doesn't interfere with his domestic policy and re-election program. He figured Progressives would stick with him no matter what, so he became hawkish to keep moderates on board. But he's losing Progressives anyway.