Not that Obama has stopped campaigning and switched to governance mode, but, and amusing analysis from Liz Sidoti thru the AP: Analysis: Obama rhetoric, reality clash
Barack Obama’s optimistic campaign rhetoric has crashed headlong into the stark reality of governing.
Ya think?
In office two months, he has backpedaled on an array of issues, gingerly shifting positions as circumstances dictate while ducking for political cover to avoid undercutting his credibility and authority. That’s happened on the Iraq troop withdrawal timeline, on lobbyists in his administration and on money for lawmakers’ pet projects.
“Change doesn’t happen overnight,” Obama said at a town-hall style event in California on Thursday, seeming to acknowledge the difficulty in translating campaign pledges into actual policy. Asked by a campaign volunteer how his supporters can be most effective in helping him bring the sweeping change he promised, Obama said: “Patience.”
Very Jimmy Carteresque. Or Cheech and Chong. “Chill, dudes and dudettes, we’ll get there. Sometime. Say, have you donated today?”
“There was a lot of excitement during the campaign and we were talking about the importance of bringing about change,” Obama told the volunteer. “We are moving systematically to bring about change. But change is hard.”
So’s governance. It isn’t all unicorns and peppy slogans. It usually involves actually staffing up, but, hey, Leno called. It’s not wonder Obama’s teleprompter left so many Bush appointees in their positions. He’s too busy doing other things, and let’s not forget that incompetence issue, to actually get the people he needs in place. Perhaps the time spent on that long vacation in Hawaii might have been better spent getting people in place.
But, while Liz does mention many of Obama’s broken and/or stretched campaign promises, the central point of the story seems to be
“Candidates make promises and presidents break promises, and that’s a very predictable pattern,” said Julian Zelizer, a Princeton University historian.
So all that flip flopping and promise breaking is the norm, so stop asking so many questions, you darned neo-cons, and get with the program. Except Obama was not the norm. He was annointed the Messiah, he told us that the seas stopped rising, the Earth began to heal, war ended, our international image was restored, and our nation was remade because he became the Democrat candidate. And we have seen this time and time again sine January 20th: the media reducing the expectations that they and the Obamanuts, along with Obama, set pre-election, now that the cold fish of reality has smacked them in the face.
Crossed at Stop The ACLU
