by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
PJ Media<\/em><\/p>\n I\u00a0think we could see what was coming. This presidency has about as much subtlety in plot as a grade-B western, soap opera, or teenage tantrum.<\/p>\n Stage One<\/strong><\/p>\n A lackluster McCain candidacy, the September 2008 meltdown, weariness with eight years of Bush incumbency, conservative anger over spending, liberal furor over Iraq, a toady media, and Republican congressional corruption all led to a 50\/50 electorate that was open to being mesmerized by Obama\u2019s rhetoric and the dream of the nation\u2019s first African-American president.<\/p>\n With congressional majorities, a compliant press, soaring public support, a soon-to-be President Obama was convinced, as he had been convinced by his success in the Ivy League, in Chicago, and in the Senate (surely praise in Cambridge means those in Toledo would be similarly wowed), that he had a left-wing mandate and he could hope and change his way to almost anything he wanted \u2014 thin record, self-contradictions, constant inconsistencies, and general confusion be damned.<\/p>\n The hard left was salivating that at last they had an effective delivery system that could usher in a long awaited European socialism. So what followed was predictable: In his hubris, Obama cast off the campaign mask of moderation. Thick and fast came proposals for state-run healthcare, government take-overs, talk of nationalizing the student loan program, bailouts, mega deficits, more borrowing as stimulus, multicultural\u00a0mea culpas<\/em>\u00a0abroad, loony symbolic appointments, and promiscuous talk of higher income, payroll, inheritance, and healthcare taxes, but only on \u201cthem.\u201d<\/p>\n In other words, we saw in a trendy, new cool form, the age-old attempt to institutionalize an equality of result, as freedom and liberty give way to mandated egalitarianism and fraternity.<\/p>\n But wait \u2014 two thorny problems arose.<\/p>\n (1) The country not quite yet is left-wing, but voted for Obama for the perfect-storm reasons outlined above. Anyone who had read the history of America could see that it was always a different sort of place than France, Germany, or Sweden \u2014 at least for a while longer.<\/p>\n (2) So to ram down a left-wing agenda, the thespian Obama would have to continue his role as the bipartisan healer, centrist, reformer, purple-state uniter, transracial unifier, etc. But, alas, instead old habits die hard; and the public soon began here and there to get glimpses of the old reality behind the new mask.<\/p>\n The wages of years with Rev. Wright and Bill Ayers, the easy path through the Ivy League, the Axelrod at our throat politics, and the snow job that had wowed deans, philanthropists, and tony suburbanites all reappeared. How could they not? Still, if one is going to hypnotize the electorate to sleep-walk them into Belgium, then one cannot in Pavlovian fashion revert back to hard-left idolatry.<\/p>\n So even as Barack Obama sought to convince the farmer, plumber, and insurance agent to accept state healthcare, a landscape of windmills, and an E.U.-foreign policy, he slipped back into his old self. Thus we got the nut Van Jones and his racist, truther bombast. Anita Dunn praised Mao. Commissars at the NEA boasted of the new Caesar.<\/p>\n Stimuli were in part apportioned on red state\/blue state agendas.<\/p>\n The Skip Gates incident prompted the president to trash the police first, and get the facts second. Creditors were politically rescheduled for bailed-out businesses. The president thoughtlessly weighed in on everything from the Special Olympics and the tea party movement to Fox News and America\u2019s purported sins.<\/p>\n Suddenly we were no longer exceptional, but the Muslim world in fact had jump-started the Renaissance and Enlightenment. The old bad guys \u2014 Ahmadinejad, Assad, Castro, Chavez, and Putin \u2014 earned new kind talk; the prior president was reduced to contemporary satanic status. Readers, you can cite far more footnotes to these now run-of-the-mill absurdities.<\/p>\n Stage Two<\/strong><\/p>\n So after a mere year, Obama has crashed and plummeted lower than any first year administration in polling history. His \u201clet me be perfectly clear\u201d and \u201cmake no mistake about it\u201d are the equivalent now of the serial teenage filler \u201cYa know.\u201d<\/p>\n Deadlines mean only more deadlines: \u201cPlease stop that Iranian nuclear program \u2014 or else I will set another deadline!\u201d; \u201cPass healthcare before the summer recess; no, before Thanksgiving; no, before the Christmas holidays; no, before the first of the year!\u201d; \u201cWe will air healthcare debates on C-span; and we will air them; and we will air them; and we\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Conservatives are in a \u201cI told you so mood\u201d \u2014 as the 2008 talk-radio bombast about Bill Ayers, Rev. Wright, \u201credistributive\u201d spread the wealth, European socialism, etc., well, turned out not to be 2009 bombast at all.<\/p>\n Moderates and independents sigh, \u201cI can\u2019t believe this is happening to me; he seemed just like Clinton with all that balanced budget talk, balanced energy policy, and mainstream help-the-little-guy talk. What happened to the Barack we trusted?\u201d David Brooks, Peggy Noonan and Christopher Buckley no longer talk of the knowledge of the great books, of a first class mind and temperament, and a detached calm and sense of competence.<\/p>\n Liberals wonder, \u201cWhy is the coolest guy around suddenly flubbing every opportunity to get our agenda passed?\u201d The hard-left laments, \u201cThis guy is a triangulator who gave us a nibble, then pulled away the bone.\u201d<\/p>\n His supporters counter, \u201cSee, he is a pragmatist and centrist who alienates the extremes.\u201d No, no, no \u2014 he alienates them, but now the middle as well. What keeps his approval ratings in the\u00a0forties is only the idea that the American people cannot quite yet accept a failed presidency after a mere 12 months \u2014 one that they had invested such hopes in after the poll crashing of Bush\u2019s final two years.<\/p>\n Stage Three<\/strong><\/p>\n The finger-pointing and blame-gaming begin since no one can properly address the real and only problem: Barack Obama has had no previous identity or independent ideology. By osmosis (rather than by careful study or life-long experience) he absorbed the trendy left-wing cant that variously manifested itself wherever he traveled, from the Occidental lounge dorm to the Ivy League salon groupthink to Chicago organizing to Rev. Wright\u2019s pulpit to the liberal caucuses of the U.S. Senate. For a while, it was all as easy as sonorously thundering \u201chope and change.\u201d He never before had to articulate his leftism in any real detail, defend it, debate it, or analyze it.<\/p>\n But now as his polls dip, we hear instead gripes over tactics, not the essence of the problem \u2014 the absence of an identity confidently and honestly expressed. So we get nonsense: \u201cHe\u2019s too detached and cool: we need a fighting Bob Lafollette!\u201d \u201cHe outsourced his agenda to the polarizing, corrupt and inept Reid\/Pelosi wing.\u201d \u201cHe surrounded himself with one too many shady Chicago polls.\u201d \u201cHe took on too much all at once.\u201d \u201cWho thought up the idea that healthcare and cap and trade ranked above the recession in the public mind?\u201d<\/p>\n Duh?<\/strong><\/p>\n What\u2019s next? We can predict it in our sleep. He will continue the \u201clet me be perfectly clear,\u201d \u201cfat-cat banker\u201d talk to his base, do his selected-audience hope and change rants while trying to do a move-to-the-center light. Oh yes, a commission to balance the budget \u2014 sorta. Tough talk abroad \u2014 kinda. Healthcare reform we can all agree on \u2014 maybe.<\/p>\n In the past, every time Obama has been in a jam, two things followed. He first throws under the bus perceived liabilities (yesterday\u2019s Rev. Wright and grandmother will be this year\u2019s Rahm Emanuel, Timothy Geithner and Janet Napolitano).<\/p>\n Second, he adopts the no more red state\/blue state, \u201cbipartisan,\u201d \u201cthere is only one America\u201d rhetoric. Yes, soon we will indeed hear abroad of American exceptionalism, and a thing called \u201cthe war on terror,\u201d and, at home, deficits that must be paid back and \u201cworking across the aisle.\u201d<\/p>\n I doubt we get genuine effort at balancing the budget, keeping businesses competitive, cutting waste, restoring American alliances, securing borders, centrist appointments, real bipartisanship, or a simplified tax system.<\/p>\n Instead, we\u2019ve come full circle from the idealistic-sounding, centrist candidate Obama, to the Carter-McGovern President Obama, back to the wannabe Clinton triangulator. The only constant \u2014 no real identity, no firm belief, no core convictions from which to make the argument that his left-wing vision is good for the country. You see, Mr. Obama never had to: left-wing dogma was always a state religion in the circles Obama thrived, and once Obama the nightingale started in his song, few of the hypnotized worried about the inane message that followed.<\/p>\n Being president is all so, so unfair!<\/p>\n \u00a92010 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media I\u00a0think we could see what was coming. This presidency has about as much subtlety in plot as a grade-B western, soap opera, or teenage tantrum.<\/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":[610],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-u6","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3367,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/president-obamas-most-amazing-libyan-achievments\/","url_meta":{"origin":1866,"position":0},"title":"President Obama’s Most Amazing Libyan Achievments","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 4, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services By bombing Libya, President Obama has accomplished some things once thought absolutely impossible in America: (a)\u00a0War-mongering liberals: Liberals are now chest-thumping about military \u201cprogress\u201d in Libya. Even liberal television and radio commentators cite ingenious reasons why an optional, preemptive American intervention in an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Libya"","block_context":{"text":"Libya","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/libya\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1879,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/our-philosopher-king-obama\/","url_meta":{"origin":1866,"position":1},"title":"Our Philosopher-King Obama","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 25, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services In Plato's ideal society, philosopher kings and elite Guardians shepherded the rabble to force them to do the \"right\" thing. To prevent the unwashed from doing anything stupid, the all-powerful, all-wise Guardians often had to tell a few \"noble\" lies. And, of course,\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":1857,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/our-obama-saga-part-two-chapters-five-six\/","url_meta":{"origin":1866,"position":2},"title":"Our Obama Saga–Part Two. Chapters Five-Six","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 4, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media Here\u2019s the conclusion to the saga of Obama. I left off [1] with Chapter Four and why the Obama locomotive went off the rails after only a year. Chapter Five \u2014 The Verdict Is Still Out So here we are after a year with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "February 2010"","block_context":{"text":"February 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/february-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2080,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obamas-bad-war\/","url_meta":{"origin":1866,"position":3},"title":"Obama’s Bad War","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 11, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner The president said some good things, but unfortunately, his long academic lecture on the nature of war itself had all the characteristics of what we have come to accept from an Obama sermon: 1) Verbosity (4,000 words plus!) and extraneousness (he finally even referenced\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "December 2009"","block_context":{"text":"December 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/december-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9475,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-next-president-unbound\/","url_meta":{"origin":1866,"position":4},"title":"The Next President Unbound","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 2, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"There is reason to worry about both candidates abusing power as president, because Obama and the press normalized executive overreach. By Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online Donald Trump\u2019s supporters see a potential Hillary Clinton victory in November as the end of any conservative chance to restore small government,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Trump"","block_context":{"text":"Trump","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/trump\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1809,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obama-too-little-too-late\/","url_meta":{"origin":1866,"position":5},"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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1866"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1866"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1867,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1866\/revisions\/1867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}