"I wanna glide down over Mulholland, I wanna write her name in the sky. Gonna free fall out into nothin'. Gonna leave this world for a while - And Im free, free fallin'. Yeah, I'm free, free fallin'..." From Tom Petty's fabulous 'Full Moon Fever' album (1989).
As Reason Online sees it.
"...Democratic candidates more identified with Great Society-style government—Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, or even Dennis Kucinich. Obama got the early endorsement of Ted Kennedy, but like Bill Clinton before him, he won because he distanced himself from Kennedy-style liberalism. His promise of change was eloquent enough to motivate the left wing of his party but vague enough to make him acceptable to people in the middle...."
"But the 44th president apparently thought he had a mandate for the expansion of federal power and responsibility, which he has used on everything from bailing out automakers to showering the economy with stimulus dollars to trying to overhaul health insurance. He and his allies have therefore been surprised to face a surge of angry opposition, including some based on wild flights of paranoia.
What they forgot is that the surest way to mobilize American political opposition, irrational as well as rational, is to enlarge the government's role in our lives. Liberals and conservatives disagree on when to distrust the government, but they share the same basic suspicion."
From where I sit, which right now is on a chair with wheels that annoyingly don't want to spin, he lost the independents. Rightly or wrongly, in the battle between Tea Parties, union thugs, insurance company shills and ACORN, I'm guessing people of moderate bent are not pleased with the "unruly mob" rhetoric that came out of the White House. It's not a racial thing - although that does play a role but that's already discounted in my view - it's a perception thing.
Moreover, I think he overstretched himself. Let's call it Presidential Overstretch Syndrome. He took the "we inherited a mess" point of view and attempted to "fix" everything at the speed of light.
The bail out was already unpopular (to which taxpayers became unwilling shareholders in a quasi-nationalized car industry), cash for clunkers had proven to be a clunker and his foreign policy came off as kowtowing to enemies. Amidst all this, he then proceeded to take on the entire health care industry. Or another way put, one-sixth of the U.S. economy. And the Americans haven't even hit the cap and trade debate yet!
It feels as though Obama wanted to do too much, too fast lest he felt he came off as "incompetent" or "incapable" of running the Oval office. In other words, he was too eager to prove critics wrong.
Obama needs to chill a little. Take a step back and pace his administration. I disagree with his philosophy on things, but I also don't want to see him fail in any spectacular fashion.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Mysterious and anonymous comments as well as those laced with cyanide and ad hominen attacks will be deleted. Thank you for your attention, chumps.