Tuesday, January 10, 2012

 

Bouncing Along Between Joy and Despair

I am very thankful that now there is no pervasive sense of an underlying inevitablility of re-election that was present when Bill Clinton went for a second term; but one recent poll or another, one current story or another, fills me with joy at the contemplation of Obama losing huge or despair at the prospect of his squeeking across the electoral finish line. He's over 50% and growing at Intrade. That ain't so good.

But with the near desertion of white voters, who put him in office just over 3 years ago, and other things he's doing wrong or failing to do well, I begin to feel better. Here's a little tidbit from The Hill which causes my heart to soar--as much as it can; it's his choice of how to campaign just now. The Quote I like:
It has become increasingly clear over the last several months that Obama has little interest in tacking to the political middle to improve his standing with the broad center of the country.

He has decided that he wants his presidency to mean something different, and he has made the fateful decision that he will govern as a left-wing political populist. That is why he has embraced the Occupy Wall Street movement, why he keeps using class-warfare rhetoric, why he has given up on deal-cutting, why he has decided to run against Congress rather than on his accomplishments.

(Emphasis added).

I certainly think first: What accomplishments? But let's look at the "running against Congress meme" closely. Lots of people say he's doing it, comparing it to Truman's run against a do-nothing Congress in 1948. But it's not a do-nothing House (they're doing their jobs), it's a do-nothing Senate (no budget for 3 years, very few consents to nominations, no oversight of agencies, etc.). And the Senate is Democrat controlled. So he's running against his own party? He's running against do-nothing Democrat Senators? Really? He thinks this is the road to a second term?

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Comments:
First of all, I don't think that 3 people in 10 could tell you that the House passed a federal budget this past session that the Senate refused to address. As a follow up, I doubt that 3 out of 10 could tell you which party is the majority in the Senate. If I'm correct, the great unwashed voting public likely just may believe Obama's rhetoric.
I would not have believed, had you told me, that one man, one president, could damage the country as this one has in <4 years. In all areas: financial, expansion of government, intrusion into individual choices, retrenchment of diplomatic and military affairs, and so on.
Frankly, I'd vote for a garden slug rather than see Obama re-elected.
His latest push to by-pass the congressional branch of government is 'way more similar to the type of authoritarian political manipulation seen in a Cuba or a Venezuela than in the United States of America. I'm not refering to the ordinary give-and-take of politics -- this is something truly extra-ordinary that we're seeing....
 
I empathize with your despair about American political apathy and I'm with you 100% about Obama's damage, but I try not to disparage the intelligence of the American voters. Like juries, I find they are smarter than you think. I'll probably won't vote garden slug for the Republican candidate though but I get your comparison. It fits a bit.
 
I would love to have the level of confidence in the voting population that you have. I'm doubtful that they have the courage to vote to reverse the "entitlement nation" course that the country is now on.

I hope I'll be pleasantly surprised come November.

Re: garden slug. I was trying to think of the most loathsome creature in my experience. The slug managed to beat out the tomato worm. ;-)
 
The only redeeming thing about the Tomato worm, if I'm thinking about what you're thinking about, is that it becomes a superior moth. I think we call it a sphinx moth.
 
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