WSJ Gets One Right
08 September 2009 12:24 am by Taylor Marsh
It’s always interesting when Paul Gigot and his crew weigh in with their analysis on Democratic machinations. But you’ve got to give it to Mr. Gigot today, because he hits the mark on one point squarely.
… Mr. (David) Sirota is speaking for many on the movement left who believe they helped to elect Mr. Obama and therefore deserve seats at the inner table of power. They are increasingly frustrated because they are discovering that Mr. Obama will happily employ “movement progressives,” but only so long as their real views and motivations aren’t widely known or understood. How bitter it must be to discover that the Fox News Channel’s Glenn Beck, who drove the debate about Mr. Jones, counts for more at this White House than Mr. Sirota.
No one likes the taste of rising bile.
Or facing the reality that the president you helped elect has been caught kowtowing to the likes of wingnut huckster Glenn Beck.
However, on other points the WSJ misses it completely. If only Obama were “governing from the left,” as they claim, but that’s not it at all. In fact, the right has totally missed Obama’s real Achilles’ heel; that thing that’s hurting him so badly.
In the end, it’s the lack of leadership, stupid, though he’s taking another shot at it on Wednesday. But please forgive me if I think it’s rather late in the game to finally be proffering declaratives.
Instead, the President has been waiting for calls from Congress, smoke signals from Sen. Snowe, and hopeful signs that his staff has come up with some compromise that the Blue Dogs will buy, while checking his reviews with Independents who have left him with a double digit drop.
As someone said to me over the weekend, George W. Bush was an idiot, but he sure wasn’t afraid to stake out a course and shoot for it. He might have been wrong, but he was sure.
Right now Pres. Obama not only looks wrong, but his actions appear appallingly unsure.
One very astute Independent, someone who has followed politics for a very long time, summed it up bluntly: Obama is in over his head.
That can happen to anyone, including the most gifted, which Obama surely is. Especially when you don’t know where you’re going and you’re purposely distancing yourself with the people who really care if you succeed; believing you look stronger when your base is steaming.
If only Pres. Obama could please Glenn Beck.
