by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
National Review Online<\/em><\/p>\n 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<\/p>\n The first one we met was Barack the radical progressive, in his primary campaign against Hillary. Then in the general election we were introduced to the centrist Obama, who promised to invade Pakistan if need be, called for an end to partisanship, and lectured about fiscal sobriety.<\/p>\n Then with congressional majorities, soaring public support, and obsequious media attention came the leftist ideologue President Obama, who tried to ram through a statist healthcare regime, gobbled up private enterprises, and gave us Anita Dunn and Van Jones.<\/p>\n Now we are back to sorta centrist Obama, who is going to fight terror, not apologize any more to the Muslim world, and freeze spending rather than give us another $2 trillion in debt.<\/p>\n These serial reset Obamas are quite astonishing even for a politician.<\/p>\n Take the examples of public advocate Obama\u2019s once idealistic promotion of C-SPAN broadcasts of the healthcare debate, and Obama\u2019s current fiery lamentations over the Supreme Court decision overturning elements of the McCain-Feingold limitations on corporate campaign donations.<\/p>\n But Obama, the current reformer, seems to be railing at Obama, the cynical backroom organizer, who would never dare televise anything about his thousand-page healthcare mess. Yet Obama II not only nixed Obama I\u2019s repeated promises of C-SPAN debates, but outsourced his healthcare bill to congressional insiders, who did more backroom-dealing, vote-buying, and quid-pro-quoing than at any other time in recent memory.<\/p>\n So there is no consistency even in the flip-flopping. Obama III as the sudden guardian of campaign-financing curbs is antithetical to Obama I, the rejectionist of any government interference. In 2008 Obama I destroyed the idea of public campaign financing of presidential elections. Indeed, in his efforts to raise a billion dollars of private money, Obama became the first presidential candidate in the general election in over 30 years to back out of public financing, an idea which is now more or less kaput.<\/p>\n So what is the present-day Obama III? Nothing and everything. We have no idea whether he is against corporate campaign contributions, given Obama I\/II\u2019s voracious appetite for them. Will he accept public campaign financing in the future? Only if his money machine stalls? Is C-SPAN necessary for or irrelevant to public debate?<\/p>\n Take also terrorism. Obama 1.0, the champion of civil liberties, based the entire foreign-policy side of his 2007\u201308 campaign on the notion of George W. Bush\u2019s shredding the Constitution in his unnecessary War on Terror and his venture into Iraq. Obama at one time or another attacked almost every Bush protocol \u2014 e.g., renditions (\u201cshipping away prisoners in the dead of night\u201d), military tribunals (\u201cflawed military commission system\u201d), preventive detention (\u201cdetaining thousands without charge or trial\u201d), the surge of troops into Iraq (\u201cnot working\u201d), the Patriot Act (\u201cshoddy and dangerous\u201d). We were to have all combat troops out of Iraq by August 2010, and Guantanamo (\u201ca legal black hole,\u201d \u201ca sad chapter in American history,\u201d \u201ca false choice between fighting terrorism and respecting habeas corpus\u201d) closed last week. Predator strikes, according to candidate Obama, recklessly terrorized civilians.<\/p>\n But Obama 2.0 seemed to be ignoring Obama 1.0. Our realist president embraced renditions and tribunals, still held terrorists in preventive detention, kept troops in Iraq, championed the Patriot Act, and apparently counted on Guantanamo to stay open. Three days after he took office Obama ordered our first reported Hellfire missile attacks inside Pakistan itself.<\/p>\n And Obama 3.0? His team renamed the War on Terror \u201coverseas contingency operations\u201d and \u201cman-caused disasters,\u201d dithered on troop escalations in Afghanistan, allowed his attorney general to go after CIA interrogators, gave the Christmas Day al-Qaeda would-be mass murderer his Miranda rights, and plans to try in a civilian court the architect of 9\/11 a few blocks from where his evil genius led to the incineration of 3,000 Americans. But wait \u2014 Obama 3.0 has also belatedly expanded the war in Afghanistan, has vastly increased the controversial judge\/jury\/executioner Predator attacks, and is talking more about terror and less about the mythical achievements of the Muslim world. That\u2019s quite an abyss to bridge \u2014 insisting that a known mass murderer like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed gets his Miranda rights while blasting to smithereens suspected terrorists and their families in their living rooms in Pakistan.<\/p>\n Obama versus Obama versus Obama could be played out in almost any venue. In 2008 he was the candidate who, in response to the McCain-Palin \u201cDrill, baby, drill\u201d mantra during the energy-price spike, supported more drilling, expansion of nuclear power, and using all our energy resources. Then, in the euphoria of early 2009, it was to be cap-and-trade and the solar\/wind vision of Van Jones. Now there is a nothing-and-everything energy policy, apparently depending on the polls and the price of energy at any given moment.<\/p>\n Candidate Obama warned that the \u201cBush deficits\u201d would cripple his imaginative spending agenda. Yet President Obama damned the red-ink torpedoes and went full speed ahead into far greater deficits, resulting in an addition to the national debt of nearly $2 trillion in his first year alone. Yet reset-button Obama is already calling for a national commission to freeze (some) spending and \u201caddress\u201d the spiraling deficit.<\/p>\n Two observations. First, there is a hazy pattern to the Obama tri-step: soar with progressive platitudes when there is no responsibility of governance; then as president slowly learn that a center-right country is not ready to blame itself for radical Islam or destroy the private-sector entrepreneurship that made America wealthy beyond imagination; and end up with an ad hoc, poll-driven policy of everything and nothing.<\/p>\n The problem with Obama 1-2-3 is that progressives rightly feel betrayed and now see their once-in-a-century savior exposed as an inept triangulator, without the Machiavellian savvy of Bill Clinton or the input of Dick Morris.<\/p>\n Conservatives, however, who should appreciate that Obama is still fighting in Afghanistan and has kept the Bush anti-terrorism protocols, are enraged about the KSM trial, the Abdulmutallab mess, and the demagoguing about the CIA and Guantanamo.<\/p>\n Second, this absence of consistency, of identity even, was entirely predictable \u2014 given what the nation knew of newcomer candidate Barack Obama in the brief two-year period we were introduced to him.<\/p>\n He sermonized on purple-state America after compiling the most partisan record in the Senate. He talked of political and racial reconciliation, while assembling the most radically divisive cast of intimates imaginable \u2014 Bill Ayers, Rashid Khalidi, the Rev. James Meeks, Father Michael Pfleger, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. He soared about a new transparency, but unlike rival McCain never fully released his medical records, his college transcripts, or the details of his Senate race.<\/p>\n If we do not know who Barack Obama is, that may be because Barack Obama does not know who Barack Obama is. Barry Dunham? Barry Soetoro? Barack Soetoro? Barry Obama? Barack Obama?<\/p>\n Is he the racial healer who called his own ailing grandmother a \u201ctypical white person\u201d? The white middle-class prep-schooler, or the authentically African-American community organizer?<\/p>\n The hip, yuppie multicultural agnostic \u2014 or the devotee of the them\/us wacky old-time religion of Trinity Church?<\/p>\n The working-class populist who ridiculed the culture of rural Pennsylvania?<\/p>\n The modern-day Cicero who needs a teleprompter?<\/p>\n The Harvard Law graduate and Chicago law professor who gets confused about everything from Cinco de Mayo to the number of states? The Chicago progressive who regularly voted present? The reformist Senate candidate whose rivals in both the primary and general elections mysteriously found their divorce records leaked?<\/p>\n By pleasing his immediate audience with his mellifluous rhetoric and clich\u00e9s about his racial transcendence, Obama has always charmed his way up hiscursus honorum<\/em>. Why worry about the nonexistent record, broken promises, empty platitudes, and self-contradictions when his mesmerized audiences believed that he believed in them, and lapped up the inexpensive absolutions for their assorted past sins?<\/p>\n The only catch is that Barack Obama no longer navigates among gullible Ivy League deans, na\u00efve philanthropists, and inept organizers and bureaucrats. No, he is running a country that still has millions of no-nonsense truckers, teachers, small-business owners, and general skeptics who don\u2019t give a damn about either Harvard or Chicago. And in their eyes, after a year, the game is about up.<\/p>\n Yet in a weird sort of consistency, Obama remains what he always was. Whatever we choose to see in this glass mirror, he will sorta, kinda reflect our vision.<\/p>\n Obama is our first everything-and-nothing president.<\/p>\n \u00a92010 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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<\/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-ub","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":117,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-powell-tragedy\/","url_meta":{"origin":1871,"position":0},"title":"The Powell Tragedy","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 16, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner Like many, I was confused not by General Colin Powell\u2019s endorsements of Barack Obama, but rather his recent remarks alleging Republican extremism and racism. His barrage was internally inconsistent and ultimately made little sense at all. Such unfounded charges are out of character with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Political Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Political Culture","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/american-culture\/political-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2808,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/dr-jekyll-and-mr-president\/","url_meta":{"origin":1871,"position":1},"title":"Dr. Jekyll and Mr. President","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 4, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services In matters of foreign policy during the president's first 100 days, we have seen two Barack Obamas. Consider \"Obama I.\" After taking office, the president gave his first interview to the Dubai-based al-Arabiya TV station, and listed various sins of America while praising\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "May 2009"","block_context":{"text":"May 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/may-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2301,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/once-upon-a-time\/","url_meta":{"origin":1871,"position":2},"title":"Once Upon a Time…","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 10, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Whatever happened to the old Barack Obama? by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Once upon a time, a fresh new politician, Barack Obama \u2014 black, young, eloquent, and hip \u2014 soared with rhetoric about hope and change. The people were mesmerized. What a contrast with the tongue-tied outgoing president,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "September 2009"","block_context":{"text":"September 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/september-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3861,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/proteus-in-chief\/","url_meta":{"origin":1871,"position":3},"title":"Proteus-in-Chief","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 1, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Barack Obama 1.0 had a solid record of hard-left governance as an Illinois state representative and US senator. He voted for partial-birth abortion, wanted all troops out of Iraq by March 2008, and proved himself the most partisan of the 100 members of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Commentary","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/obama-administration\/commentary-obama-administration\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2032,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obama-becomes-the-fall-guy\/","url_meta":{"origin":1871,"position":4},"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). Centrist Democrats up for reelection in 2012 openly worry about inviting a kindred president into their districts, lest the new pariah lose them votes.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Campaign 2012"","block_context":{"text":"Campaign 2012","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/obama-administration\/campaign-2012\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6860,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/vdh-quoted-in-barack-obamas-past-as-murky-as-his-word\/","url_meta":{"origin":1871,"position":5},"title":"VDH Quoted In, “Barack Obama’s past as murky as his word”","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 19, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jack Kelly \/\/\u00a0The Pittsburgh Press\u00a0 Onyango \u201cOmar\u201d Obama, 69, half-brother of Barack Obama Sr., came to the United States on a student visa in 1963, remained here illegally after it expired, was ordered to leave the U.S. in 1986, 1989 and 1992, but ignored the deportation orders. 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