I almost didn’t read this; but this is so true and is so on target. Anatomy of a Failing Presidency > > Barack Obama is on track to have the most spectacularly failed > presidency since Woodrow Wilson. In the modern era, we've seen several > failed presidencies--led by Jimmy Carter and LBJ. Failed presidents > have one strong common trait-- they are repudiated, in the vernacular, > spat out. Of course, LBJ wisely took the exit ramp early, avoiding a > shove into oncoming traffic by his own party. Richard Nixon indeed > resigned in disgrace, yet his reputation as a statesman has been > partially restored by his triumphant overture to China 20. > But, Barack Obama is failing. Failing big. Failing fast. And > failing everywhere: foreign policy, domestic initiatives, and most > importantly, in forging connections with the American people. The > incomparable Dorothy Rabinowitz in the Wall Street Journal put her > finger on it: He is failing because he has no understanding of the > American people, and may indeed loathe them. Fred Barnes of the Weekly > Standard says he is failing because he has lost control of his message, > and is overexposed. Clarice Feldman of American Thinker produced a > dispositive commentary showing that Obama is failing because > fundamentally he is neither smart nor articulate; his intellectual > dishonesty is conspicuous by its audacity and lack of shame. > But, there is something more seriously wrong: How could a new > president riding in on a wave of unprecedented promise and goodwill have > forfeited his tenure and become a lame duck in six months? His poll > ratings are in free fall. In generic balloting, the Republicans have > now seized a five point advantage. This truly is unbelievable. What's > going on? > No narrative. Obama doesn't have a narrative. No, not a narrative > about himself. He has a self-narrative, much of it fabricated, cleverly > disguised or written by someone else. But this self-narrative is > isolated and doesn't connect with us. He doesn't have an American > narrative that draws upon the rest of us. All successful presidents > have a narrative about the American character that intersects with their > own where they display a command of history and reveal an authenticity > at the core of their personality that resonates in a positive endearing > way with the majority of Americans. We admire those presidents whose > narratives not only touch our own, but who seem stronger, wiser, and > smarter than we are. Presidents we admire are aspirational peers, even > those whose politics don't align exactly with our own: Teddy Roosevelt, > FDR, Harry Truman, Ike, and Reagan. > But not this president. It's not so much that he's a phony, knows > nothing about economics, and is historically illiterate and woefully > small minded for the size of the task--all contributory of course. It's > that he's not one of us. And whatever he is, his profile is fuzzy and > devoid of content, like a cardboard cutout made from delaminated > corrugated paper. Moreover, he doesn't command our respect and is > unable to appeal to our own common sense. His notions of right and wrong > are repugnant and how things work just don't add up. They are not > existential. His descriptions of the world we live in don't make sense > and don't correspond with our experience. > In the meantime, while we've been struggling to take a measurement > of this man, he's dismissed just about every one of us--financiers, energy > producers, banks, insurance executives, police officers, doctors, > nurses, hospital administrators, post office workers, and anybody else > who has a non-green job. Expect Obama to lament at his last press > conference in 2012: "For those of you I offended, I apologize. For > those of you who were not offended, you just didn't give me enough time; > if only I'd had a second term, I could have offended you too." > Mercifully, the Founders at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 > devised a useful remedy for such a desperate state--staggered terms for > both houses of the legislature and the executive. An equally abominable > Congress can get voted out next year. With a new Congress, there's > always hope of legislative gridlock until we vote for president again > two short years after that. > Yes, small presidents do fail, Barack Obama among them. The > coyotes howl but the wagon train keeps rolling along.. > Margaret Thatcher: "The trouble with Socialism is, sooner or later you > run out of other people's money." > "When you subsidize poverty and failure, you get more of both." - James > Dale Davidson, National Taxpayers Union > "The more corrupt the state, the more it legislates." - Tacitus > "A Liberal is a person who will give away everything he doesn't own." - > Unknown "Monk" "IN GOD WE TRUST"