by Bruce Thornton<\/p>\n
Frontpage Magazine<\/em><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n The Democrats\u2019 convention was the public coming-out bash for the party whose political clock stopped in 1972. Every speaker and speech celebrated the musty left-wing ideology and smug arrogance of those who idolize big government because it gives them the power to tell everybody else what to do and how to live \u2014 exactly what most Americans say they don\u2019t like and don\u2019t want. Then why are Obama\u2019s poll numbers still so high?<\/p>\n The Dems\u2019 whole production was an in-your-face spectacle of cobwebbed radical chic, spurious \u201cdiversity,\u201d and Nurse Ratched\u2019s totalitarian iron fist wrapped in a therapeutic velvet glove. Speech after speech peddled blatant lies, including Bill Clinton\u2019s folksy, mendacious repudiation of every policy and principle that made his own presidency a success until it went up in intern-scented cigar smoke. God and Jerusalem were booed, and a rabbi Eastwooded thousands of empty chairs with a benediction that was careful not to mention God. In the midst of economic disaster, the heads of abortion lobbies like NARAL and Planned Parenthood, and federal functionaries like abortion fundamentalist Kathleen Sebelius, were given ample time to rant and rave about protecting a \u201cwoman\u2019s right\u201d to kill the unborn without any limitations. And of course, plagiarist Joe Biden blustered his way through a whole catalogue of lies, claiming Obama \u201csaved the auto industry\u201d when in fact what he saved was the Auto Workers Union, and pronouncing \u201cAmerica has turned a corner!\u201d almost to the day that the national debt hit $16 trillion and the latest jobs report showed paltry job growth and worsening unemployment.<\/p>\n Such a public show of leftist arrogance, coming on the heels of 4 years of incompetence, monstrous deficits, billions of dollars squandered on pork for political clients and cronies, and scorched-earth partisan attacks, should spell doom for Obama and the Democrats. After all, polls reveal that 41% of Americans identify themselves as conservative, while only 23% choose liberal. A recent Rasmussen poll found that 66% of likely voters believe the government has too much power. In another poll, 51% of Americans believe the government is more a threat to individual rights rather than a protector of them. In still another poll, 54% of Americans wanted government \u201cto get out of the way\u201d rather than \u201clend a hand,\u201d the choice of only 35%. As Dick Morris put it, \u201cIt was odd to watch a president commit political suicide by so brazen and overt an embrace of the 35% and a repudiation of the 54%.\u201d<\/p>\n So we should be expecting a landslide somewhere between Nixon\u2019s 23-point drubbing of George McGovern and Reagan\u2019s 10-point whipping of Jimmy Carter, two other big-government progressive Democrats who believed that the limited government, individual rights, and personal freedom bestowed by the Constitution weren\u2019t as important as creating the brave new world of absolute equality and \u201csocial justice.\u201d And yet, Obama and Romney are tied in the polls. That\u00a0per se<\/em>\u00a0is not unusual. In June of 1980, Carter led Reagan 39% to 32%, and Carter was still leading in early September. Much can happen between now and November. Just ask John McCain, who was leading Obama by 5 points in early September, only to have the economy implode later that month. What is more mystifying is Obama\u2019s high personal approval numbers, which were up to 54% immediately after his tedious, vacuous convention speech. This number partly reflects something even more curious: his consistently high \u201clikability\u201d numbers, also at 54% according to Gallup. Only 31% find Mitt Romney likable.<\/p>\n The whole notion of \u201clikability\u201d is dubious on its face. What really is being measured is not the actual personality or character of Obama, but the perceptions of an ever-changing image, which is what most of us encounter. Thus subjectivity and duplicity are built into \u201clikability,\u201d particularly when lapdog media relentlessly accentuate and fabricate the positive, and ignore or cover up the negative, as they have done with Obama.<\/p>\n Even so, based on the image of Obama that comes across in his television appearances and statements, it\u2019s hard to see what anyone can find so likable about him. Yes, he has a nice family, and seems to be a good father and husband, but so what? What has that to do with being President? And anyway, no one would label serial philanderer Bill Clinton a good family man, yet his likability numbers are still high.<\/p>\n Unlike Clinton, however, who seems sincerely to be an affable good-ol\u2019-boy who obviously likes people, Obama comes across as quite different. What the media and even some conservatives laughably call his \u201ccool\u201d is actually an arrogant disdain for other people, particularly those who refuse to worship at his shrine. His narcissism is monumental, as when last month he told a group of NBA players, \u201cIt\u2019s very rare that I come to an event where I\u2019m like the fifth- or sixth-most interesting person.\u201d This self-regard is made even more distasteful by the gap between it and his obvious incompetence daily revealed in everything from verbal gaffes to ignorance of basic economics, not to mention his utter failure to turn the economy around. He has arrogant mannerisms, such as lifting his chin when he lectures, his addiction to the first-person pronoun, and his verbal tics like \u201cLet me be perfectly clear,\u201d as though he were speaking to incompetent underlings rather than the citizens he supposedly serves. His claims to be \u201cpost-racial\u201d have been belied by his incessant dealing of the race card to deflect criticism, as when he called his grandmother a \u201ctypical white person\u201d for fearing the statistically factual probability of being the victim of a black criminal.<\/p>\n His nice-guy persona is also belied by his political minions\u2019 vicious\u00a0ad hominem<\/em>\u00a0attacks on Romney and the Republicans, and by his fondness for using scorched-earth tactics against his political enemies. Witness the coarse, unnecessary attack on the Catholic Church over the contraception mandate, or his last minute demand for another $400 billion of tax increases in his negotiations with John Boehner over raising the debt ceiling last year. And let\u2019s not forget his juvenile penchant for blaming others for his own mistakes, particularly his ungracious treatment of his predecessor, made all the more glaring by George Bush\u2019s classy restraint. Finally, there are the numerous unsavory details from his past, such as palling around with terrorist Bill Ayers, getting his political opponents\u2019 sealed divorces record unsealed, spending 20 years in racist Reverend Wright\u2019s church, and profiting from his association with convicted real estate operator Tony Rezko. What\u2019s so \u201clikable\u201d about all that?<\/p>\n The obvious answer, as Rush Limbaugh has argued, is the \u201cBradley Effect.\u201d In 1982, Los Angeles\u2019s black mayor Tom Bradley had a significant lead over George Deukmejian in the race for California governor, but ended up losing. Some argued that voters lied to pollsters about their support for Bradley because they feared being seen as racist or prejudiced, thus creating the discrepancy between pre-election polls and the final result. Other elections that seemed to reflect this phenomenon were the 1989 New York mayor\u2019s race between Rudy Giuliani and David Dinkins, and the 1989 Virginia governor\u2019s race between Douglas Wilder and Marshall Coleman. Dinkins and Wilder both won their elections, but by margins much narrower than predicted by pre-election polls.<\/p>\n If the \u201cBradley Effect\u201d is at work in the polls measuring Obama\u2019s likability, then the dysfunction of America\u2019s race relations is even worse than we thought. Obama has governed not as a centrist like Clinton or even a conventional liberal like Bradley or Wilder, but as a doctrinaire progressive who is way out of touch with the center-right American political majority. Nor does his arrogant public personality soften the extremism of his politics. If a significant number of Americans are telling pollsters that they find someone so out of touch with their political beliefs \u201clikable,\u201d just because they\u2019re afraid of appearing \u201cracist\u201d by criticizing a black man, then the race card remains a powerful trump. Whether it\u2019s powerful enough to return a manifest failure to the White House remains to be seen.<\/p>\n \u00a92012 Bruce S. Thornton<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Bruce Thornton Frontpage Magazine The Democrats\u2019 convention was the public coming-out bash for the party whose political clock stopped in 1972. Every speaker and speech celebrated the musty left-wing ideology and smug arrogance of those who idolize big government because it gives them the power to tell everybody else what to do and how […]<\/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":[22,96],"tags":[190,12,207,183,32,1018],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-7z","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2228,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-lefts-selective-outrage\/","url_meta":{"origin":469,"position":0},"title":"The Left’s Selective Outrage","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 11, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine You know liberals are edging toward a full Jonestown-style meltdown when someone as smart as New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman starts losing it. Last week Friedman worked himself up into a paranoiac frenzy over the tone of some of the criticism Obama and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6606,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/bruce-thornton-on-secure-freedom-radio-with-frank-gaffney\/","url_meta":{"origin":469,"position":1},"title":"Bruce Thornton on Secure Freedom Radio with Frank Gaffney","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Seth Jones, Bruce Thornton, Peter Pham, Diana West October 9th, 2013\u00a0\u00b7\u00a0Comments SETH JONES, Associate Director of the International Security and Defense Policy Center at the RAND Corporation, joins guest host DAN BONGINO, to help explain the terror threat from and historical background of the terrorist organization al-Shabaab. BRUCE THORNTON, a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":892,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/a-dangerous-verdict-in-new-jersey\/","url_meta":{"origin":469,"position":2},"title":"A Dangerous Verdict in New Jersey","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 21, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine New Jersey jury on Friday convicted a Rutgers freshman of \u201cbias intimidation,\u201d among several other charges. Dharum Ravi had set up a webcam in the dorm room he shared with Tyler Clementi, and then posted footage online of Clementi being intimate with another man.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Islam"","block_context":{"text":"Islam","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/islam\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5396,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ideology-trumps-truth-on-campus\/","url_meta":{"origin":469,"position":3},"title":"Ideology Trumps Truth on Campus","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 25, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The doors are open for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but closed for Larry Summers by Bruce S. Thornton City Journal Many observers noted that Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad\u2019s recent visit to Columbia University took place at about the same time that the University of California at Davis canceled a speaking appearance by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3812,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/homer-economics\/","url_meta":{"origin":469,"position":4},"title":"Homer Economics","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 24, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton Advancing a Free Society The showdown between public employee unions and cash-strapped state governments on display in Madison should be bad news for President Obama and the Democrats. While millions of Americans are unemployed, and those lucky enough to have jobs pay for their retirement and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":519,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/time-for-liberals-and-progressives-to-get-new-labels\/","url_meta":{"origin":469,"position":5},"title":"Time for ‘Liberals’ and ‘Progressives’ to Get New Labels","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 17, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce Thornton Frontpage Magazine We need to find a new label for the ideology espoused by leftist Democrats. \u201cLiberal\u201d doesn\u2019t accurately describe the party of blinkered intolerance, fanatical certainty, and an eagerness to destroy freedom in order to achieve some dubious utopia. \u201cProgressive\u201d is more historically accurate for ideas\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469"}],"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=469"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":470,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469\/revisions\/470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}