{"id":6693,"date":"2013-10-30T10:34:47","date_gmt":"2013-10-30T17:34:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=6693"},"modified":"2013-10-30T10:35:43","modified_gmt":"2013-10-30T17:35:43","slug":"for-obama-nothing-succeeds-like-failure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/for-obama-nothing-succeeds-like-failure\/","title":{"rendered":"For Obama, Nothing Succeeds Like Failure"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/\u00a0FrontPage Magazine<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Rasmussen reported last Friday that 52% of likely voters approve of Obama\u2019s job performance. This number is both astonishing and depressing. The avalanche of Obama\u2019s failures both domestic and foreign should have buried this presidency months ago. Yet despite the slow-motion implosion of Obamacare now catching the attention of even the court-journalists of the mainstream media, millions of American voters still think one of the worst presidents in modern history is doing a good job.\"Photo<\/p>\n

In any other administration, even without Obamacare, the litany of scandal and bungling would have politically crippled not just Obama but the Democrats as well. The murderous gunrunning of the Fast and Furious debacle, Attorney General Eric Holder turning the Justice Department into the Democrats\u2019 Luca Brasi, the out-of-control EPA waging its economy-killing war on carbon, the National Labor Relations Board unleashed to browbeat business and revive a moribund labor movement, the SEC shaking down banks for billions, the IRS targeting political opponents, the trillion-dollar \u201cstimulus\u201d spent to achieve the worst economic recovery in history, the trillions more borrowed and created out of thin air to finance entitlement spending and payoffs to political cronies\u2013\u2013and that\u2019s just domestic policy.<\/p>\n

Add the outrageous incompetence and indifference that got 4 Americans murdered in Benghazi, the subsequent lies and cover-up for political advantage, the waste of American money, toil, and blood in Iraq by the precipitate withdrawal of our forces, the likely reprise of that malfeasance in Afghanistan, the alienation of allies like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Israel, the cozying up to the genocidal Muslim Brotherhood, the appeasement of the equally genocidal mullahs in Iran, the groveling to a rampaging Russia, the whole Syria \u201cred line\u201d humiliation over chemical weapons\u2013\u2013any one of these foreign and domestic fiascos would have inflicted serious political damage if we weren\u2019t living in the alternative political universe in which we suddenly found ourselves on January 20, 2009.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to blame an obviously biased and politicized media determined to ignore or downplay Obama\u2019s incompetence. Skeletons in the closet like Jeremiah Wright and terrorist Bill Ayres have been ignored, gaps in Obama\u2019s personal biography left unfilled, and evidence for his alleged brilliance like college test scores and transcripts left in the dark. By fiat he has been declared the most intelligent president ever, the media reflexively agreeing with his estimation of himself as the smartest guy in every room despite ample evidence to the contrary. More mysterious are the assertions of his rhetorical prowess, which are average at best when he reads a teleprompter, but non-existent whenever he speaks ex tempore, when every third word is followed by \u201cuh-uh-uh.\u201d Barefaced lies, obviously duplicitous spinning of mistakes and scandals, blatant double standards, passing the buck to George Bush, and shameful self-contradictions have all been rationalized, ignored, or explained away by the media. The self-proclaimed watchdogs of the public weal have become lapdogs, fawning over their master while snarling and snapping at his political enemies.<\/p>\n

So yes, a corrupt media have contributed to Obama\u2019s continuing popularity. Just compare the media\u2019s treatment of the Watergate scandal with their indifference to the IRS\u2019s use of its power to give the Democrats a political advantage during a presidential election. Watergate was a minor political scandal of the sort that can be found on every page of American history. It didn\u2019t make a difference politically, as Nixon was on his way to a landslide victory in any case. The same Europeans who would later snicker at America\u2019s high dudgeon over Bill Clinton\u2019s sordid sexual hijinks with an intern felt the same way about our hysterical reaction to Watergate\u2013\u2013another sign of America\u2019s provincial moralism and naivet\u00e9. Yet self-righteous liberals and their media hacks elevated this two-bit scandal into the greatest threat to the republic since the Civil War. Watergate became a mythic narrative illustrating the fascist instincts of Republicans and the nobility and bravery of the media, even though all the\u00a0Washington Post<\/i>\u00a0did for the most part was give the public information fed to reporters from a disgruntled FBI functionary.<\/p>\n

Compare that to the IRS\u2019s using its regulatory power to intimidate and silence political rivals of the president, betraying the public trust and tarnishing their duty as public servants. And unlike Watergate, the IRS did have an impact on the election by taking many Republican-friendly organizations out of the game. Yet here we are months later, and all that\u2019s happened is Lois Lerner is now enjoying a cushy retirement after pleading the Fifth before a House committee and lying serially to the country. No one has been held accountable, and the media have spent more time on Miley Cyrus\u2019s twerking prowess and Kim Kardashian\u2019s impending nuptials than on getting to the bottom of this blatant misuse of taxpayer-financed government power.<\/p>\n

Having said all that, however, we still can\u2019t let those 52% of likely voters off the hook. These days too many alternatives to the mainstream media, from Fox News and NRO to Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter, exist for anyone truly interested in learning the truth ignored or distorted by the legacy media. Those who want to know will know. Yet many Republican Party operatives, refusing to hold the people accountable, have been more eager to blame some in their own party rather than admit that millions of Americans simply don\u2019t want to listen to the Republicans\u2019 message. Old Senate dinosaurs like John McCain validate the media caricatures of the Tea Party as extremist \u201cwacko-birds\u201d and slack-jawed racists, and then settle down to try and cut deals with the Democrats over big-government monstrosities like comprehensive immigration reform. Or Republican consultants, presumed masters of political tactics and strategies, call for better \u201cmessaging,\u201d as though millions of Americans just don\u2019t know about Benghazi, the IRS, the cancerous national debt, or the myriad other scandals.<\/p>\n

They know all right. They just don\u2019t care. And if they don\u2019t know, explaining it to them won\u2019t make much difference. Either they\u2019re on the government dole and happy to stay there, or they have drunk the Progressive kool-aid and are intent on committing intellectual and political suicide.<\/p>\n

Saying this angers many Republicans, who think these folks just need some explaining to see the light. But too many alleged conservatives have forgotten the profound distrust of the people underlying the Constitution. The Founders endorsed the maxim of Machiavelli: \u201cIt is necessary to whoever arranges to found a Republic and establish laws in it, to presuppose that all men are bad and that they will use their malignity of mind every time they have the opportunity.\u201d That\u2019s why the Founders gave the people freedom, but limited it with numerous checks and balances, many of which have been weakened, not the least being the limited government that makes it difficult for ambitious elites to corrupt the people with government handouts and redistributed property.<\/p>\n

That Constitutional horse obviously left the barn a long time ago. We have become what Churchill once called \u201cGovernment of the\/by the\/for the dole-drawers.\u201d So as long as the government checks fill the mailboxes, the EBT cards work, satellite television delivers the shows, the Cineplex offers the latest special-effects extravaganza, and the shelves of Walmart and Whole Foods stay stocked, the people will shrug off Obama\u2019s lies and failures and keep on amusing themselves to political death.<\/p>\n

Republicans need to drop their mantra that this is a \u201ccenter-right\u201d\u00a0country of natural conservatives who just need some tutoring to recognize their own best interests. And they need to accept that Obama\u2019s failures won\u2019t damage his success until the grievous costs of those failures start concentrating enough people\u2019s minds by hitting their wallets. The rolling disasters of Obamacare look more and more like they may do the trick. Then people might be more receptive to our founding ideas of limited government and fiscal prudence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/\u00a0FrontPage Magazine\u00a0 Rasmussen reported last Friday that 52% of likely voters approve of Obama\u2019s job performance. This number is both astonishing and depressing. The avalanche of Obama\u2019s failures both domestic and foreign should have buried this presidency months ago. Yet despite the slow-motion implosion of Obamacare now catching the attention of […]<\/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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[22,11,187,536],"tags":[671,12,321,1055,1044,88,40,693,1041],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-1JX","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6945,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/fight-the-next-war-not-the-last-one\/","url_meta":{"origin":6693,"position":0},"title":"Fight the Next War, Not the Last One","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 28, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/\u00a0FrontPage Magazine\u00a0 Tuesday night President Obama will deliver another campaign speech, this one\u00a0marketed\u00a0as the State of the Union address. As such, we can expect to hear, through the\u00a0usual\u00a0white noise of \u201cI,\u201d \u201cme,\u201d and \u201cmy,\u201d\u00a0vacuous bromides like \u201cmoving America forward,\u201d and\u00a0empty\u00a0promises \u201cto grow the economy, strengthen the\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":1138,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/its-the-president-stupid-the-referendum-on-barack-obama\/","url_meta":{"origin":6693,"position":1},"title":"It’s the President Stupid: The Referendum on Barack Obama","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 10, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton RightNetwork.com The people have spoken, and what they have said concerns more than just the wrong-headed policies the Democrats have inflicted upon us in the past few years. This election was never just about policy \u2013\u2013 it was also about Barack Obama and the repudiation of\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":7985,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-democrats-waterloo\/","url_meta":{"origin":6693,"position":2},"title":"The Democrats\u2019 Waterloo","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 6, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Their refusal to acknowledge the administration\u2019s failures did not make them go away. by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online The Duke of Wellington said of his close-run victory over Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo that the French \u201ccame on in the same old way, and we sent\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "America's Future"","block_context":{"text":"America's Future","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/americas-future\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"(Pool Image\/Getty)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/pic_giant_110614_SM_Barack-Obama-Waterloo-G-500x291.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6883,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/2014-year-of-decision\/","url_meta":{"origin":6693,"position":3},"title":"2014: Year of Decision","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 6, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/\u00a0FrontPage Magazine\u00a0 This year we will see if America is still a center-right country, or if Obama\u2019s two terms will mark a historic shift to the left. History and recent events give cause for optimism, subject, of course, to unforeseen events. The champions of big government,\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":862,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obama-a-creature-of-the-corrupt-university\/","url_meta":{"origin":6693,"position":4},"title":"Obama a Creature of the Corrupt University","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 5, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine The November presidential election was the favorite topic at the Freedom Center\u2019s West Coast Retreat last weekend. Amidst the prognostications and arguments about which Republican would or should get the nomination, or how pessimistic or optimistic conservatives should be about defeating the President, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Education"","block_context":{"text":"Education","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/education\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6304,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obama-who\/","url_meta":{"origin":6693,"position":5},"title":"Obama Who?","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 6, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ PJ Media Critics of the president are convinced that Barack Obama will do lasting damage to the U.S. I doubt it. Obama came to power in the third year of large Democratic congressional majorities. In his first referendum, he lost the House and he may\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "America's Future"","block_context":{"text":"America's Future","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/americas-future\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6693"}],"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=6693"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6696,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6693\/revisions\/6696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}