by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
National Review Online<\/em><\/p>\n Obamism was repudiated in the midterm election. Not since 1938 has the Democratic party lost so many House seats. The losses of state legislatures and governorships were as bleak for liberals. Obama\u2019s frantic campaigning in the last two weeks before the election did little to stop the tide, but did much to remind the country how easily the president reverts to a natural partisanship and divisiveness. Nancy Pelosi\u2019s promise to \u201cdrain the swamp\u201d of congressional corruption ended four years later with a disgraced Charles Rangel offering up the Magna Carta as a defense of his ethics violations. The congressional elections of 2012 could be just as depressing for liberals, given the greater exposure of Democratic incumbents. George W. Bush now polls roughly even in approval ratings with Barack Obama, who has neither the political experience nor the ideological deftness of a Bill Clinton to triangulate and reinvent himself as a moderate.<\/p>\n For Obama to continue pressing his agenda would be to further the ongoing destruction of the Democratic party in 2012. However, there are some reasons to believe that he may well instead prefer to vote present, as in his Illinois past, and thereby stave off catastrophe. Why?<\/p>\n The anger of the unhinged Left \u2014 the high-profile but ultimately irrelevant rantings of a Michael Moore or a Bill Maher \u2014 has the effect of making Obama seem more centrist than he is: With enemies like these, he needs fewer friends. Obama had offered such hope-and-change promises to a progressive America that many na\u00effs assumed he could turn a country that polls 60 percent conservative into another Sweden \u2014 and then onward to even more still. Now that Obama has been rendered politically impotent, he can stop with Obamacare, relieved of the burden of a liberal congressional majority. The extreme Left will become shriller the less the president does. And both their furor at presidential inaction and Obama\u2019s\u00a0own inability to press on with his leftist projects will help him politically.<\/p>\n We can already sense how the president is not going to take the bipartisan lead in cutting out-of-control expenses. Key Democrats have already turned on the centrist recommendations of the president\u2019s deficit-reduction commission. Republicans will ultimately have to look at everything from Social Security and Medicare to defense. Obama can benefit from their fiscal responsibility while deploring their heartlessness.<\/p>\n The economy is bound to recover, especially when Americans with capital are assured that Obamism has stalled and it is time to reenter the market \u2014 to resume investing, hiring, and buying equipment. Consumers have reduced debt. The world economy is healing. Obama can do very little and take credit for very much. Things should be better by November 2012 than they are now \u2014 as long as the private sector is assured that Obama will do no more harm.<\/p>\n Obama\u2019s class warfare will not end, but it may be refocused and refined. The problem for many Americans was not that he attacked the wealthy per se, but that he gored those who were not really wealthy \u2014 at least as defined by a ridiculous $250,000-annual-income rubric that demonized any above and patronized those below. Expect the president to up his them\/us Mason-Dixon line to, say, a million dollars in annual income. Such a hike will reassure his upscale liberal supporters in the media, the universities, and the law that they are not exploiters and need not pay higher taxes, while also exempting most small businesses from increased income, capital-gains, and payroll taxes. Everyone knows of someone noble who makes somewhat over $250,000 a year; most people don\u2019t worry much about a mostly unknown \u201cthey\u201d who, as class enemies, pile up $1 million or more in annual income.<\/p>\n Abroad, the president is quietly starting to curb the bowing and apologizing. His team is learning that cynical foreign leaders appreciated Obama\u2019s fawning only to the degree that they could take advantage of it at the expense of America \u2014 and of Obama\u2019s reputation.<\/p>\n For all the past talk of hitting the reset button, Obama has quietly accepted the entire Bush anti-terrorism policy. There is no more bragging about closing Guantanamo, ending renditions and tribunals, or trying KSM in a civilian court; idiotic parlance like \u201coverseas contingency operations\u201d and \u201cman-caused disasters\u201d hasn\u2019t been heard for months. We are now witnessing the surreal world of Hillary Clinton (\u201csuspension of disbelief\u201d) defending America\u2019s use of force in Afghanistan against international criticism and explaining why a Petraean surge is working this time, when she is in charge of U.S. foreign policy.<\/p>\n When Obama urges the American people to have patience with his war plans, as he ups the number of Predator drone attacks and special-forces hit missions, then we are living in quite an alternative universe to wanting all troops out of Iraq by March 2009 and declaring the Bush surge a failure.<\/p>\n By 2011, American foreign policy in practice will resemble nothing of what presidential candidate Obama outlined in 2008 and thought he could deliver in winter 2009. Instead, the damage that Obama has wrought in 2009\u201310 will be passed off as inevitable American \u201cdecline\u201d that he was trying to \u201cmanage.\u201d<\/p>\n In his first two years in office, Obama said and did some ridiculous things abroad, and assorted monsters in Iran, Lebanon, North Korea, Syria, and Venezuela are still calibrating to what degree they can (literally) get away with murder. Opportunists in China and Russia are still trying to decide whether it is time to humiliate Obama, cashing in their chips and taking their winnings home, or whether they can get more still from our gullible president.<\/p>\n Obama\u2019s reelection chances could hinge on international crises to come. His fate may rest not on whether at home he triangulates like Bill Clinton or continues to sermonize like Jimmy Carter, but on whether abroad he is up to something like Clinton\u2019s confrontation with Milosevic, or whether he prefers instead an appeasement akin to Carter\u2019s enlistment of Ramsey Clark to help out with the hostage release.<\/p>\n How odd that, 22 months into his presidency, the best reelection chances for the president of the United States are suddenly found in keeping quiet, abandoning his agenda, adopting the security protocols of his hated predecessor, and sounding more like a Reagan or a Bush than a Carter when he reaps abroad in 2011\u201312 what he has sown in 2009\u20132010.<\/p>\n Weirder still? The more Obama\u2019s polls improve from his not being Obama, the more moderate Democrats will probably praise him for his virtual progressivism.<\/p>\n \u00a92010 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Obamism was repudiated in the midterm election. Not since 1938 has the Democratic party lost so many House seats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[504],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-i5","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1265,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/october-suprises\/","url_meta":{"origin":1121,"position":0},"title":"October Suprises","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 13, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services The Democrats will probably suffer historic losses in both the House and Senate in less than 60 days. The 11th-hour campaigning of the now-unpopular Barack Obama on behalf of endangered congressional candidates will not change much. In fact, most embattled Democratic candidates don't\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "September 2010"","block_context":{"text":"September 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/september-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1611,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/soldier-citizens-to-the-rescue\/","url_meta":{"origin":1121,"position":1},"title":"Soldier-Citizens to the Rescue?","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 10, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Usually a handful of ex-soldiers seek political office every election cycle. But well over 20 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans are running this fall for Congress alone. Almost all are riding a wave of public anger at incumbents over a profligate government and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "May 2010"","block_context":{"text":"May 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/may-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3776,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/liberals-gone-wild\/","url_meta":{"origin":1121,"position":2},"title":"Liberals Gone Wild!","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 23, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Why do Republicans drive leftists so crazy these days? Liberal democrats are beginning to sound like rowdy students on spring break, shrieking and exhibiting themselves on camera. Consider some of the recent rabid outbursts by once sober, old-guard politicians. West Virginia Sen. Jay\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "October 2006"","block_context":{"text":"October 2006","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2006\/october-2006\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3150,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/2008-teeter-totter-our-that-was-then-this-is-now-year\/","url_meta":{"origin":1121,"position":3},"title":"2008 Teeter Totter: Our ‘That Was Then, This Is Now’ Year","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 29, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services As 2008 comes to a close, almost nothing has turned out as was expected at the beginning of the year \u2014 whether we consider oil prices, the war in Iraq, political corruption or the collapse of the U.S. financial system. Oil For much\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "December 2008"","block_context":{"text":"December 2008","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2008\/december-2008\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11461,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/could-trump-win-20-percent-of-the-african-american-vote-in-2020\/","url_meta":{"origin":1121,"position":4},"title":"Could Trump Win 20 Percent of the African-American Vote in 2020?","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 19, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review The provocative Donald Trump certainly seems to be disliked by a majority of African-American professional athletes, cable-news hosts, academics, and the Congressional Black Caucus. Yet there are subtle but increasing indications that his approval among other African Americans may be reaching historic highs for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Donald Trump"","block_context":{"text":"Donald Trump","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/donald-trump\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9543,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/sanctimony-inc\/","url_meta":{"origin":1121,"position":5},"title":"Sanctimony, Inc.","author":"Megan Ring","date":"October 26, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Time was, leftists complained of rigged elections, the media paid attention to dirty tricks, and conservatives cared more about results than rhetoric. Donald Trump, in characteristically muddled and haphazard fashion, said he thought the election might end up \u201crigged\u201d (if he lost). 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