Virtually every other NY Times columnist is still full of Obama Love, mostly refusing to criticize Mr. Obama. Maureen Dowd, though, seemed to lose patience with him a while ago, and rips him to shreds: One and Done?
ONE day during the 2008 campaign, as Barack Obama read the foreboding news of the mounting economic and military catastrophes that W. was bequeathing his successor, he dryly remarked to aides: “Maybe I should throw the game.â€
On the razor’s edge of another recession; blocked at every turn by Republicans determined to slice him up at any cost; starting an unexpectedly daunting re-election bid; and puzzling over how to make a prime-time speech about infrastructure and payroll taxes soar, maybe President Obama is wishing that he had thrown the game.
The leader who was once a luminescent, inspirational force is now just a guy in a really bad spot.
His Republican rivals for 2012 have gone to town on the Labor Day weekend news of zero job growth, using the same line of attack Hillary used in 2008: Enough with the big speeches! What about some action?
Mo then goes on to reiterate the Big Jobs Speech and how Team Obama totally blew it, and even wonders about the disrespect shown by Team Obama to the GOP, who had, as we all know, planned a big debate that same Wednesday night, one planned for months. She mentions his silly “Frustrated” email blast sent on Wednesday, and compares it to the Onion parody “Frustrated Obama Sends Nation Rambling 75,000-Word E-Mail.â€
If the languid Obama had not done his usual irritating fourth-quarter play, if he had presented a jobs plan a year ago and fought for it, he wouldn’t have needed to elevate the setting. How will he up the ante next time? A speech from the space station?
Republicans who are worried about being political props have a point. The president is using the power of the incumbency and a sacred occasion for a political speech.
If Mo Dowd can recognize that that’s all Obama is doing, using a joint session of Congress for an unserious campaign speech…..
Obama is still suffering from the Speech Illusion, the idea that he can come down from the mountain, read from a Teleprompter, cast a magic spell with his words and climb back up the mountain, while we scurry around and do what he proclaimed.
The days of spinning illusions in a Greek temple in a football stadium are done. The One is dancing on the edge of one term.
That’ll leave a mark. Expect some serious hate mail from the Obama Zombies, Mo.
Of course, it won’t be that easy to see him one and done. He’ll still raise a ton of money. He has the power of incumbancy. He has the bully pulpit of the presidency. And he still has tons of Obama zombies. But, remember, he beat a rather tame opponent in John McCain, he blew it with his “I’m suspending my campaign…” stunt. Obama had the benefit of being new and exciting, pumping up the youth vote. Now those same youths have entered the jobs market, and realize that …… Obama is clueless on how to juice the economy so that jobs are created. For those who have been on unemployment forever, the question is “do you want unemployment benefits, or a job?” And the question for Americans is “are you better off than you were four years ago?”
Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU
