By Ted Belman
Mathew Continetti has written A Brief History of Obama
Column: How sarcasm and insult took over the Democratic Party.
In it he explains that Obama would never had gotten traction had it not been for the hatred of Pres Bush among the anti-war and radical left crowd. His likeability and Axsmith’s strategy enabled him to capture the centre.
- “Obama took pains to avoid ideological conflict. He was about hope and change, not insult and blame. He was going to be bipartisan, even post-partisan, and would govern in a manner that appealed to every American. He opposed a health care mandate. He emphasized his plans to cut middle class taxes and reduce government spending. Above all, Obama was not going to be Bush, whose approval ratings tanked as first Democrats, then independents, and finally Republicans abandoned him.”
His downfall started when:
- “… once Bush had faded from the scene, once he’d been replaced by a group of reform-minded GOP governors and congressmen, and once the Democratic president had to account for the failures of his own term, Obama’s appeal faded, too.”
and continued:
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The Obama coalition, piece by piece, has been disassembled. All that remains is the antiwar, anti-Republican core of the Democratic Party. There are more registered Democrats than Republicans, so Obama could still squeak out a second term. But he has forsaken independents and whites, the groups that swung to him definitively and significantly in 2008. He is losing independents, in some polls by double-digits. His opponent Mitt Romney is “winning the white vote by more than any GOP candidate since Ronald Reagan,” according to the Washington Post. If the 2012 electorate resembles the 2008 one, it is possible for Obama to win reelection. But if the electorate turns out to be more like the electorate in 2004 or, God help him, like in 2010, Obama will lose.
Even a narrow win for Obama, though, would not reestablish anything like the mandate and amity the president enjoyed on his Inauguration Day. The reason is that, as the Obama coalition diminished, Obama no longer disguised the prejudices, inflections, outlook, and approach of the progressive movement. A confessed reader of Andrew Sullivan’s hysterical web site, the president has taken on the maximalist characteristics of the liberal blogosphere. He is scornful and contemptuous of Romney, as could be seen in his patronizing lecture on aircraft carriers and submarines during the third debate. His campaign seizes on the most trivial comments—“I like Big Bird”; “Binders full of women”—to engage in juvenile jibes that would not make the first cut at the Late Show writers’ meeting. His rallies have becomeself-congratulatory comedy hours in which the assembled Democrats laugh heartily at the insults and zingers the president throws Romney’s way. Obama has been on a seemingly nonstop tour of television shows hosted by late-night comics. His new attack line that the Republican nominee has “Romnesia” was, as the vice president might say, literally taken from liberal blogs. The vice president even asked his audience at a recent rally whether it had watched The Daily Show the night before. The men who hold the highest offices in the most powerful country in the history of the world have been debased to the point where they look like fill-in guests on Up with Chris Hayes.
He concludes by writing:
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“The Democrats are back where they started eight years ago. And this time, Barack Obama cannot save them.”
@ Mike L.:
Progressive is regressive–it is Marxism–it always hurts those it supposedly helps and it impoverishes nations!
Barack Obama has never been a help–as president he has always been a drag on the party!
If he were not so arrogant, one could almost feel pity for the guy. It must have been quite an exhilarating experience being adored by crowds at home and abroad – while his advisors ran the show. He did not have much to do, just show up here and there and read the teleprompter. His advisors decided on policy and sent him to play basketball, watch sports, and host big parties at the White House. It is said that he hardly ever attended security meetings. He trusted his advisors.
But then at some point things began to unravel. Obamacare. Economic measures. Fast and Furious. Benghazi. Support began to slide. What happened!!! These days one can sense chaos within the Democrat campaign by the tone of their ads. They are childish, even offensive, directed it seems to the very young and the very stupid. Whatever happens on election day, nothing will ever be the same for him and his party.
That is a very, very intelligent article and, as one who was part of the progressive-left netroots who despised George W. Bush, I can tell you that it is absolutely correct.
Before I finally left the left, I kept telling them that our hatred of Bush is what kept us all together… but Bush was gone… and so was I.
ROMNEY THE SAVIOR? Yes, in a way he could save the US from turning into a police state. This is how: There is almost complete media silence about the National Resources Defense Preparedness Order, the Kill List, the NDAA, the TSA’s expanding powers, and many other preparations for a police state (courtesy of both Democrats and Republicans). Both the pro-Obama and the right-wing media are silent. And so are both candidates. The public is only vaguely aware, or not aware at all.
I just watched a video where random Obama supporters are told that all of the above measures are Romney’s plans. They naturally express disgust. But once they’re told tht they are actually Obama’s policies, they fall into a state of complete bewilderment. Our guy? Could he be capable of that?
So here is how Romney can save the country. Once he takes over, the media can openly attribute all those police state measures to the Republicans, thereby raising the kind of popular opposition that until now has been absent. And so the United States is saved!