by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
NRO’s\u00a0The Corner<\/em><\/p>\n Cap-and-trade, statist healthcare, and an end to \u201cdon\u2019t ask, don\u2019t tell\u201d for thee.<\/p>\n And for thou, Obama the tax cutter, Obama the gas-and-oil driller, Obama the budget freezer, Obama the anti-lobbyist reformer, Obama the bipartisan healer?<\/p>\n This half-hearted pivoting was quite transparent: Obama made these about-faces without acknowledging that the Obama of 2010 is now and then rejecting the Obama of 2009, much less that the partisanship and bickering of the past year stemmed largely from the hubris of having both houses of Congress and an obsequious press. Instead, Obama seemed miffed that after Scott Brown\u2019s victory he had to offer half-hearted sops.<\/p>\n After Obama spent 2009 ignoring jobs in order to focus on healthcare, he tells us that 2010 will be the year of jobs. So after a year of promiscuously talking about higher income, payroll, healthcare, and inheritance taxes on \u201cthem,\u201d Obama suddenly believes that small business is the engine of growth, and will therefore get new tax cuts and credits.<\/p>\n Likewise, after ignoring or negating his campaign promises about coal, gas, and nuclear power in his first year, suddenly Obama announces that we\u2019re going to develop them!<\/p>\n Same with federal spending freezes. Same with ethics reform \u2014 the first general-election presidential candidate to refuse public campaign financing now deplores the weakening of McCain-Feingold.<\/p>\n We also heard many of Obama\u2019s familiar rhetorical devices:<\/p>\n 1) He trotted out the usual straw men: \u201cI was told by some,\u201d \u201cWashington has been telling us,\u201d etc. And once these awful straw men are set up, our hero Obama answers defiantly, \u201cI don\u2019t settle for second place!\u201d The straw-man ploy is now stale.<\/p>\n 2) The \u201cI didn\u2019t ask for\u201d trope: Obama acts as if he bravely endures persecution on our behalf, rejects the easy path, and presses ahead on the difficult path.<\/p>\n 3) The \u201cthey did it\u201d trope: So when Obama talks of \u201clobbying\u201d and \u201chorse trading\u201d on healthcare, apparently some right-wing nut in the Senate started buying votes at $300 million a clip? The Washington insider who has the White House and Congress blames . . . Washington!<\/p>\n 4) The \u201cBush did it\u201d trope: So Obama\u2019s deficits are the result of Bush\u2019s spending and weak economy \u2014 but is a relatively quiet Iraq due to Bush\u2019s successful surge? No. Obama himself will bring the war in Iraq to a close. He did not offer one word of praise for Bush in a speech calling for unity.<\/p>\n 5) The meaningless token: So after piling up the two largest budget deficits in U.S. history, Obama promises fiscal sobriety and spending freezes \u2014 but only in 2011, after we pile up yet another year of trillion-dollar-plus red ink.<\/p>\n 6) The above-it-all lecturing: After blaming Bush for 30 minutes and castigating the Republicans for \u201cjust saying no to everything,\u201d Obama lectures on Washington\u2019s partisan bickering. And after a year of hardball Chicago politicking, a politically weakened Obama calls for bipartisanship and a new tone. That will go over really well.<\/p>\n 7) The meaningless deadlines and promises: No speechwriter should invoke Iran and a deadline to comply on nonproliferation; no one believes Obama after the past four failed deadlines. He should give it all a break.<\/p>\n 8) The final hope-and-change flourishes: The emotional end of the speech, which used to set crowds afire in 2008, seemed more rote.<\/p>\n All in all, this was a nonchalant performance that ran for well over an hour. The president\u2019s above-it-all cynicism, mocking, and dry humor didn\u2019t work. The whole thing reminded me of a flat grad-school seminar with a snickering professor talking down to clueless students.<\/p>\n \u00a92010 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson NRO’s\u00a0The Corner Cap-and-trade, statist healthcare, and an end to \u201cdon\u2019t ask, don\u2019t tell\u201d for thee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","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":[609],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-tT","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1874,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obama-in-free-fall\/","url_meta":{"origin":1853,"position":0},"title":"Obama in Free Fall","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 27, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner A\u00a0year ago, a number of \"moderate\" Republicans and Democratic stalwarts, in the gush of the inauguration, warned us of new Democratic majorities for years to come. A new race\/class\/gender dynamic would doom conservatives and their-old-white-guy party and its reactionary fellow-travelers. And, of course, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "January 2010"","block_context":{"text":"January 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/january-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1809,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obama-too-little-too-late\/","url_meta":{"origin":1853,"position":1},"title":"Obama–Too Little, Too Late","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 1, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services The United States may very well owe a crushing $20 trillion by 2020. And thus President Obama last week named a bipartisan commission to find ways to address our national debt. Such a Periclean response might sound sincere and worthwhile. But it comes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "March 2010"","block_context":{"text":"March 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/march-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2192,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-kitty-cat-who-roared\/","url_meta":{"origin":1853,"position":2},"title":"The Kitty-Cat Who Roared","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 26, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services President Obama keeps roaring out deadlines like a lion \u2014 only later to meow like a little kitty. Remember, for example, how he bellowed to cheering partisan crowds that he would close down the detainment facility at Guantanamo within a year? The clock\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "October 2009"","block_context":{"text":"October 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/october-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1868,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-obamarang\/","url_meta":{"origin":1853,"position":3},"title":"The Obamarang","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 30, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media All politicians fudge on their promises. But this president manages to transcend the normal political exaggeration and dissimulation. Whereas past executives shaded the truth, Barack Obama trumps that: on almost every key issue, what Obama says he will do, and what he says is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "January 2010"","block_context":{"text":"January 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/january-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1871,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obama-versus-obama\/","url_meta":{"origin":1853,"position":4},"title":"Obama versus Obama","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 27, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Will the real Barack Obama please stand up? by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online There is little need any more to offer consistent opposition to Barack Obama, since he himself is already running hard against the many previous incarnations of Barack Obama.\u00a0 The first one we met was Barack\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "January 2010"","block_context":{"text":"January 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/january-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2032,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obama-becomes-the-fall-guy\/","url_meta":{"origin":1853,"position":5},"title":"Obama Becomes the Fall Guy","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 19, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Suddenly, liberal op-ed writers are trashing \u2014 even lampooning \u2014 Barack Obama as a one-term president (\u201cone and done\u201d). 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