Now is the Summer of our Discontent

Nile Gardiner isn’t one of those people I’d exactly pal around with, but he’d make for an interesting dinner guest on the odd occasion. After all, Dr. Gardiner is associated with the dread Heritage Foundation which puts out a lot of propaganda under the heading of research and is the Director of the Margaret Thatcher “Center for Freedom”. Try saying that with a straight face. Well, he did work for her at one time.

Any way, he’s written an interesting article for The Telegraph called “The stunning decline of Barack Obama: 10 key reasons why the Obama presidency is in meltdown”. It’s worth some consideration albeit it needs a warning label before consumption. The opening statement alone has me questioning his grasp on reality. I’m not sure still how any one can say that there’s any ruling liberal elite right now. It’s more like the best working example of corporate cronyism I’ve ever read about since the Gilded Age. But then his job is that of a right wing meme maker. Ideologues have that act down pretty well.

The last few weeks have been a nightmare for President Obama, in a summer of discontent in the United States which has deeply unsettled the ruling liberal elites, so much so that even the Left has begun to turn against the White House.

However, here are some points worthy of consideration. His discussion of dismal poll numbers for Obama are astonishing.

The RealClearPolitics average of polls now has President Obama at over 50 per cent disapproval, a remarkably high figure for a president just 18 months into his first term. Strikingly, the latest USA Today/Gallup survey has the President on just 41 per cent approval, with 53 per cent disapproving.

There are an array of reasons behind the stunning decline and political fall of President Obama, chief among them fears over the current state of the US economy, with widespread concern over high levels of unemployment, the unstable housing market, and above all the towering budget deficit. Americans are increasingly rejecting President Obama’s big government solutions to America’s economic woes, which many fear will lead to the United States sharing the same fate as Greece.

Growing disillusionment with the Obama administration’s handling of the economy as well as health care and immigration has gone hand in hand with mounting unhappiness with the President’s aloof and imperial style of leadership, and a growing perception that he is out of touch with ordinary Americans, especially at a time of significant economic pain. Barack Obama’s striking absence of natural leadership ability (and blatant lack of experience) has played a big part in undermining his credibility with the US public, with his lacklustre handling of the Gulf oil spill coming under particularly intense fire.

I’m not sure I’d consider Obama’s approach to be a big government solution as much as I would call it a putting the criminals in charge of the crime scene approach but I do agree with him about the “striking absence of natural leadership ability (and blatant lack of experience)” part. His tours around the country to plants and businesses in trouble seem in line with Prince Charles going around the UK trying to experience what life is like outside the Palace. I just don’t see Obama as having the least bit of empathy or feel for what it takes to make ends meet. Even though he and Dubya both were legacies for Harvard, for some reason Dubya managed to shake the prep school cheerleader title for as much as some of the press wanted to hang it on him. Obama just has never left that persona and when cornered, he appears to take what some folks consider a ‘professorial’ posture. He gets more cold and aloof and displays lack of passion for even his policies. This is just weirdish behavior to me. I mean, if he truly believes that his health care and finance reform is good for the country, why doesn’t he just say it in a meaningful way?

This is evidenced in two points of Gardiner’s diatribe.

Again, now with the polls.

This deficit of trust in Obama’s leadership is central to his decline. According to a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll, “nearly six in ten voters say they lack faith in the president to make the right decisions for the country”, and two thirds “say they are disillusioned with or angry about the way the federal government is working.” The poll showed that a staggering 58 per cent of Americans say they do not have confidence in the president’s decision-making, with just 42 per cent saying they do.

For some one who inspired so much about generic change, he’s pathetically dull in the support of whatever change the Obama-Pelosi-Reid team have wrought.

Also, this point is germane.

In contrast to the soaring rhetoric of his 2006 Convention speech in Chicago which succeeded in impressing millions of television viewers at the time, America is no longer inspired by Barack Obama’s flat, monotonous and often dull presidential speeches and statements delivered via teleprompter. From his extraordinarily uninspiring Afghanistan speech at West Point to his flat State of the Union address, President Obama has failed to touch the heart of America. Even Jimmy Carter was more moving.

We’ve spoke about this before, but I fail to see any fire coming out of Obama’s belly except when he’s all wee weed up about himself or his campaign. When actually talking about the details of governance or the country, he’s a total Milford Milquetoast. I was actually disturbed by his complete lack of caring and empathy when he signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. He was giving the speech with the two families right there and he really read the accompanying speech like he was just waiting to get it over so he could go back to the links. It was an important piece of legislation for those interested in Civil Rights. You think he’d act more involved with it.

Watch this. Does he sound like he’s really thrilled with this event?

Again, many of the points in the article are typical right wing memes like we’re “drowning in debt” which again, is due to the bad economy mostly and a lot of war expenditures, but hold your nose on that and read some of the more salient points. Some are off mark although they do point to issues. For example, when was the last time you heard the President actually give some kind of vision on what our foreign policy is about these days? It’s like he’s left the conversation and let Hillary work on details rather than talking about any kind of cohesive policy with a world view. If we’ve put the Bush doctrine behind us, I’d certainly like to hear about an Obama doctrine. The McChyrstal flap showed us that even the central foreign policy issue Obama is concerned with is in complete disarray. He seems content with leaving every thing–including the overall structure for policy–to bureaucrats in charge of the details. There is no overarching strategy to any thing that’s shown up on the national scene these days including the Oil Spill.

If Dubya/Cheney had the country’s rudder headed the wrong direction, than Obama’s leading us rudderless. This vacuum is why so many ridiculous right wing memes are taking hold.

If the Gardiner line does anything, it successfully takes the appearance of not really caring about issues and frames them successfully. Look at some of the recent things like the “Michelle Antoinette” story. We have the Obama family switching their vacation plans this month from Martha’s Vineyard to Panama City Florida but only after that story wouldn’t die. There’s this feeling about Obama that he just doesn’t care about what the people think about things until he’s told to care. That’s a dangerous character flaw.

Then, there’s Gibbs going rogue this week by calling the base out on actually expecting the policy change to match the campaign rhetoric. I can understand the need to pummel the ‘elite’–that now being a mainstay of election season politics–but really, to suggest that people that care about policy and substance that you were manipulated when useful are a bunch of drug addicted whiners is something that even I find symptomatic of the tin ear character of this entire administration. It’s like they only wake up to what people say when it might impact them personally. Gibbsy is just the face on that entire attitude.

Again, I’m personally all wee weed up about this because I don’t really want to see the bat shit crazy Republican party back in office for another two decades because the current batch of Dinocrats won’t deliver on all the promises they made. Republicans may not have the policy answers down at all, but they’ve now got the wind at the backs. Who would think we’d see Gingrich back in the saddle thinking he’s got a shot at the presidency? All this two years after Dubya basically destoyed the party.

Right wing meme-makers like Gardiner can gain traction because we have a president and an administration with a tin ear. They’ve mistaken their mandate for change for the people with a mandate for just being there and doing whatever. I only wish he’d show as much passion about governance and policy as he did for himself and his campaign back then.

But, it ain’t gonna happen.

It’s almost two years since Obama basically destroyed the party. What now? Are we going to see a little passion about something other than campaign themes out of this presidency before we go back to the compassion of conservatives once again?