Dana Milbank of the Washington Post is a charter member of the Obama fan club. For years, Milbank's columns read less like news and more like a sonnet that began "How do I love Obama? Let me count the ways." But now, things have gotten so bad and Obama's faults are so visible that even Milbank is changing his tune. In his latest column, Milbank writes about Obama's total lack of leadership in the economic crisis. Here is a snippet: "Why isn’t [Obama} leading this process? That is the enduring mystery of Obama’s presidency. He delivered his statement on the economy beneath a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, but that was as close as he came to forceful leadership. He looked grim and swallowed hard and frequently as he mixed fatalism (“markets will rise and fall”) with vague, patriotic exhortations (“this is the United States of America”).
“There will always be economic factors that we can’t control,” Obama said. Maybe. But it would be nice if the president gave it a try."
Let me repeat that: "IT WOULD BE NICE IF THE PRESIDENT GAVE IT A TRY"!!!!!
In recent days, Obama has been roundly criticized by the media. Dana Milbank and Maureen Dowd are two that I have quoted here. But there are many others. Richard Cohen (also of the WaPo) writes today that Obama is not "cool" but "cold". The list goes on.
The point is that Obama has lost his mystique. In 2008, Obama sold himself as Mr. Hope and Change. He was going to keep the seas from rising. He was going to heal the planet. He was going to right all wrongs. In short, he was all things to all people. Now, sadly, three years of ineptitude has demonstrated that Obama is not what he claimed to be. Instead of all thing to all people, he is nothing to most. For the others, he is trouble walking.
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