by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
PJ Media<\/em><\/p>\n I\u00a0was fascinated watching the recent Obama campaign stops, particularly the contrast with 2008. Gone are the faux columns and classical backdrops. There are no more\u00a0vero possumus<\/em>\u00a0seals (now they fall off the podium). All pretense of \u201cno more red states, no more blue states\u201d nonpartisanship has long ago been dropped. Even the shrill, boilerplate evocation of \u201cBush-Cheney did it\u201d sounds strained. The blatant divisive appeal to unions, young people, and \u201cblack folks\u201d is now unapologetic. Them versus Us is the new theme. Gone is the pretense of inclusivity. Even the fainting now seems rigged rather than spontaneous, the faux cadences forced and more Rev. Wrightish rather than inspired. The eyes of the crowd roll, and have lost their glazed zombie look of 2008. It all reminds me of the failed comeback tour of the proverbial fading rock star, the desperate promos for the sinking supposed blockbuster Hollywood movie, or perhaps something akin to Jerry Ford\u2019s WIN buttons or the Carter desk thump.<\/p>\n So Unfair<\/strong><\/p>\n The recent interviews with and analyses of the Obama administration \u2014 as it descends to a near 40% approval rating \u2014 by sympathetic liberal journalists reveal one common theme: a sort of petulance that the actual job of an administration proved so much more of a downer than the giddiness of the 2008 campaign. So unfair, so terribly unjust.<\/p>\n Apparently, Team Obama\u2019s disappointment is largely found in others (as is \u201cthey\u201d and \u201cthem\u201d), rather than this bunch\u2019s own hubris and its invitation to nemesis. There seems to be absolutely no realization about three central truths to the implosion of this administration. And until they achieve self-reflection, they will have no comeback analogous to a Bill Clinton in 1995:<\/p>\n Flukes as Mandates<\/strong><\/p>\n Obamites still seem to think their arrival signaled a genuine American move to the left, or at least Obama\u2019s singular ability to take the country to the left, rather than a confluence of once in a century events that allowed the northern liberal Obama to do what Dukakis, Kerry, McGovern, and Mondale had not (e.g., the novelty of the first serious African-American candidacy, the anger over the Iraq war, the lackluster McCain campaign that seemed to want to lose nobly rather than win messily, the first orphaned election without incumbents since 1952, the September 15, 2008, panic and meltdown, and the stealth candidacy of Obama running as a centrist moderate).<\/p>\n There was no need right off the bat, in the midst of a recession, to nationalize healthcare, push cap and trade through the House, digest the student loan program, sell cash for clunkers, or celebrate mega-deficit stimulus borrowing. Unemployment was the key and was ignored, although a great deal of research had shown that targeted tax incentives and reassuring talk about a favorable business climate can accelerate recovery.<\/p>\n All this nonsense was a complete misreading of the election. The result is that in a few weeks Obama will destroy the careers of 50-70 House members and 8-11 senators who followed the tune of our mellifluous pied piper into the abyss. I suggest that he doesn\u2019t care all that much (his post-office future is brighter than theirs) \u2014 both because of narcissist tendencies and a sober reflection that a Republican Congress in 2011-12 can be blamed for cutting the \u201cneedy\u201d while Obama can take credit for the upturn that will surely follow once business grasps his socialist agenda is stalled.<\/p>\n Private Enterprise Is Run by Humans<\/strong><\/p>\n This administration is absolutely clueless about the psychological element central to economic recovery. (Yes, yes, I know, some of you think it was a predetermined effort to wreck capitalism. I wrote about that for\u00a0National Review<\/em>\u00a0for tomorrow.) Obama & Co. seem to think businesses and financial bodies are not human, and so don\u2019t mind serial slurs (from the damnation of the Chamber of Commerce [real smart in a recession] to quips like \u201cI do think at a certain point you have made enough money\u201d as the first lady hits Costa del Sol). Yes, businesses are run by real people with feelings and sensory perception. They \u201cget\u201d the demonization of those who make over $250,000, the loose talk of VAT taxes, caps off income subject to payroll taxes, healthcare surcharge taxes, a return to the Clinton tax rates only on top incomes, higher capital gains taxes and new inheritances taxes.<\/p>\n Add all that to new healthcare and financial regulations, and the message is clear the American private sector is suspect rather than industrious and critical to our nation\u2019s economic life. After Obama\u2019s slurs against Fox, the Republican leadership, insurers, Wall Street, doctors, police, the people of Arizona, or opponents of the Ground Zero mosque, fairly or not, a lot of people conclude that he does not like them or what they do or what they represent. So trillions of dollars in capital are waiting on the sidelines until November and proof that the Obama agenda is stalled. Even the SEIU or Nancy Pelosi cannot change that fact.<\/p>\n Trumping Nixon<\/strong><\/p>\n Then there is the constant petulance. The administration has proven itself vintage Nixonian in its enemy lists without Nixon\u2019s foreign policy expertise. Collate all the dark forces like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Justice Roberts, Fox News, John Boehner, the Tea Party, the Chamber of Commerce, and Karl Rove. Then add those nefarious actors with Journolist, Robert Gibbs\u2019s venomous buffoonery, and the president\u2019s own attacks (e.g. \u201cstupidly\u201d acting police, racist Arizonans that deport kids on their way to ice cream, xenophobic Manhattanites) and we are right back to 1972-3, albeit with the hypocritical veneer of hope and change, no more red\/blue state, and across the aisle brotherhood. Hypocrisy is a force multiplier to paranoia.<\/p>\n An Unimaginable Reckoning?<\/strong><\/p>\n We are looking at a perfect storm in November. In theory, well less than 180 seats are absolutely safe. Millions of independents and conservative Democrats will vote by a straight pocketbook barometer: Obama turned a recession into a near depression in a way Reagan and Clinton did not. Millions of other na\u00efve Republicans and moderates feel embarrassed that they voted for a European socialist and won\u2019t ratify his agenda in November. A hard-core leftist base is petulant that Obama copied Bush\u2019s anti-terrorism protocols and broke a lot of promises in the process; they will vote only if they happen to be driving by the polls on a Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n A few wealthy liberals are starting to do some basic arithmetic and, lo and behold, are discovering that they are on the wrong side of the new economic Mason-Dixon line of $250,000 and are suddenly counter-revolutionaries, and thus scheduled for a $20-40 thousand \u201ccontribution\u201d in new income, capital gains, healthcare, and state income taxes to achieve \u201credistributive change.\u201d (That monstrous Obama \u201908 sign on the lawn, much less the fading Obama\/Biden bumper sticker, does not count with the IRS.) They remind me of \u2018reformers\u2019 who thought throwing out Louis XVI would put them at the forefront of a reasoned revolution and now find themselves on the way to the guillotine, the sympathetic \u201crich\u201d that Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety still didn\u2019t like.<\/p>\n Even the base, unions, and minorities won\u2019t all show up without Obama, their godhead, on the ballot. The final irony? The more Obama goes out on the campaign trail, slurs the Chamber or the new enemy of the week, and blatantly appeals to bloc voting from particular minority groups, the more unsympathetic to voters he becomes. (I don\u2019t recall George W. Bush going after Keith Olbermann, Bob Shrum, MoveOn.org, or the AFL-CIO).<\/p>\n Please Don\u2019t Forget Chris Gibson, in NY\u2019s 20th.<\/strong><\/p>\n As I wrote on previous occasions, a rare American \u2014 war hero, author, West Point instructor, retired colonel, conservative\u2014 Chris Gibson is running neck and neck in New York\u2019s 20th Congressional District. I don\u2019t get involved in political races per se; but I met Chris during his one-year stay at Stanford, and found him a rare Renaissance figure \u2014 yet another of these idealistic first-time candidates without a political resume who are entering the fray to save this country. I think pundits have not appreciated the fact that this is not quite a red\/blue, Republican versus Democratic race, but a historic election in which many of the Republican candidates are first-time politicians, beholden to no one, and not part of the Republican establishment. Their ascendancy should make things very interesting. Chris is a rare candidate, whose integrity is as unquestioned as his talents are boundless. It was an honor to be called his friend. He is an investment in our collective future.http:\/\/www.chrisgibsonforcongress.com\/donate.html<\/a><\/p>\n Stanford Daily<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n I never heard back from the\u00a0Stanford Daily<\/em>\u00a0in my challenge to either apologize or demonstrate that the American university has clear and logical criteria for racial and ethnic preferences in hiring and admission and, furthermore, has the ability to determine exactly who, and on what grounds, qualifies for membership in such targeted rubrics. The letters, however, to the\u00a0Stanford Daily<\/em>, were entertaining to the say the least.<\/p>\n Tour\u2014Sold Out<\/strong><\/p>\n The Tyrrhenian Sea tour for some reason sold out (65 with staff) this year quite early. Perhaps it was the itinerary of Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, the Italian Coast, or this year\u2019s focus on military history lectures on everything from Napoleon to Invasions of Sicily from the Athenians\u2019 to George Patton\u2019s. If anyone is still interested, check the website (victorhanson.com) and contact Al Philipp, who is desperately trying to purchase 5 more slots on the cruise and hotel if possible.<\/p>\n \u00a92010 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media I\u00a0was fascinated watching the recent Obama campaign stops, particularly the contrast with 2008. Gone are the faux columns and classical backdrops.<\/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":[505],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-iZ","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13555,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-traditionalist-all-the-lies-and-pretense\/","url_meta":{"origin":1177,"position":0},"title":"The Traditionalist: All the Lies and Pretense","author":"Jennifer Hanson","date":"June 16, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ Art19 and Just the News Victor Davis Hanson and Jack Fowler talk about Toobin's folly, Fauci's fraud, Biden-Harris diplomacy, and the price of Trump derangement syndrome. 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Not since the iconoclasts of the Byzantine Empire or the epidemic of statue destruction during the French Revolution has the world seen anything like the current war on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Civil War"","block_context":{"text":"Civil War","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/civil-war\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13873,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/american-armageddon\/","url_meta":{"origin":1177,"position":3},"title":"American Armageddon","author":"Victor Davis Hanson","date":"August 16, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ American Greatness Americans are growing angrier by the day in a way different from prior sagebrush revolts such as the 1960s Silent Majority or Tea Party furor of over a decade ago. The rage at the current status quo this time is not just fueled by\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3275,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/not-over-yet\/","url_meta":{"origin":1177,"position":4},"title":"Not Over Yet","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 11, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Reasons for hope on the first Tuesday in November. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Of course, this is a Democratic year. The public is tired of George Bush and eight years of an incumbent administration. 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