Pirate's Cove

So writes Commentary’s Jonathan S. Tobin

As I wrote last night, President Obama’s attack mode during the Boca Raton debate seemed to suggest that he was the challenger trailing in the race rather than the incumbent nursing an alleged lead. But the president’s nasty streak is also displaying itself on the campaign trail, where he has been trying out one-liners about his rival like a would-be comic at open mic night at a comedy club. Last week’s big yuck was his “Romnesia” crack that alludes to the fact that Romney has changed his positions on some issues. Today, he doubled down on that one by saying Romney had “stage 3 Romnesia” at a rally in Delray Beach, Florida.

One might ask what exactly about cancer, a disease whose progress is generally referred to in stages in that manner, is so funny? But even if we are ready to give him a pass for showing bad taste, one has to question the strategy being employed here. For several months, the entire Democratic campaign seemed predicated on derision and demonization of Romney. But in the first presidential debate the GOP candidate blew that effort out of the water, changing not only the direction of the race but rendering much of the Obama campaign’s material obsolete if not completely irrelevant. Yet despite that, the president keeps playing the same losing hand aimed at denigrating an opponent who strikes most Americans as inherently reasonable. That makes one wonder whether the president’s condescending attitude as well as his sarcasm has a lot more to do with his anger at Romney’s strength and staying power than it does with any tactical political plan. More and more, it’s sounding as if President Obama is just plain mad at Romney because of the growing possibility that he’s going to lose the election.

One might wonder why Obama is so angry that he might lose the election. On one hand, he seems to like to be president; on the other, he doesn’t seem to like to do president. Might he not feel better if he was just plain old Barack H. Obama, free to play golf and party every day? He can supplement his government provided pension by writing a few more books about himself.

Perhaps it’s the notion that someone would dare speak back to Him, something certainly few have done over the past almost 4 years. Perhaps it’s the notion that he might lose all that power, and no longer be able to chose which target on his kill list to launch a drone strike on, and no longer be able to impose his will on the country through executive fiat. With some, power breeds the want of more power.

Perhaps this is just who he is, an angry, narcissistic, and petulant man. We saw brief flashes of this on the campaign trail in 2008. The Greek columns were a big hint. The nastiness displayed to John McCain post-coronation was a second clue. All the rage when Republicans dared to block Obama’s wish list of far left spending and policies. And along comes this Mitt Romney character, who’s dared to assail Obama with Obama’s own pathetic record. And that makes Obama angry. Obama positioned himself as The Savior of America, and people agreed with him, calling him The One and the Lightbringer, took pictures of Obama that made it seem that he had a halo around his head, and now this Romney guy is challenging Him. How dare he!