Posted by
Andrews on Monday, March 22, 2010 10:31:26 AM
I know in "
Withholding
Comment" I said I was not commenting on ObamaCare's (almost) passage, but the recent events have made me realize something. Obama's history has clearly played a major role in shaping him. Recall, he may be a "politician", but he is not a politician in the traditional sense. He is an anointed seat holder, who was basically given a seat in Illinois, the only fighting being parliamentary tactics to exclude primary competition. Similarly, he was basically given the Senate seat. So, until he ran for president, against a despised Clinton and an ineffective McCain, with a fawning media unwilling to ask even softball questions, he had not really run.
So, he is expert at back room deals, at political game sin legislatures, but not at handling the public. And I think that is why, while he might force through ObamaCare, he will end up sacrificing his party, due to his arrogance, his difficulty in recognizing real public outrage, and his problems gauging whether the public is just momentarily angry or is truly in a mood to vote out the incumbents.
Which makes me think, once more, the MSM did the Democrats no favors by their kid glove treatment of Obama. Hillary would have been a bad choice, but she had a little less open arrogance and a little more ability to manipulate the public. Had the press unearthed even a few of the problems Obama has with dealing with the public, or his monomaniacal tendency to pursue his goals, while dismissing any opposition as a personal attack, he might have been bounced in the primaries, and, bad as she might be, the Democrats would have a slightly brighter future under president Clinton.
POSTSCRIPT
I am sure liberals will dismiss this, thinking Obama has "won" and showed himself a success. But 2010 will show the lie of that position. Just because Obama pushed through his pet project does not make him a success. If he loses his majority and condemns his party to the wilderness of years all to enact a bill which is repealed or amended into impotence, does that make him a success?