Obama’s ‘most’ problem

posted at 12:20 pm on October 28, 2011 by Howard Portnoy
[ Obama ]   

The good news for the Obama reelection campaign is that thepresident’s approval rating is back up. The bad news is that it is “up” to 44%, still well below the historical 47% cutoff for incumbents a year out from election.

As analysts on the left scratch their heads and try to figure outwhat went what wrong, one factor they tend to overlook is what I call Obama’s “most” problem. Every contender for high office makes promises. Where Obama went astray in his 2008 campaign was the peppering of his promises with superlatives and absolutes.

His was not simply going to be a transparent White House but the most transparent in history. His presidency, he promised, would bridge Washington’s fierce partisan divide, giving new meaning to the “U” in USA. His administration would be the fairest, the most honest, the most wow. With unattainable goals like those, his chances of success were doomed from the start.

Perhaps no anecdote better captures the yawning chasm between Obama’s promise of transparency and the reality than his banning the press from a ceremony where he was to receive an award for transparency! Each time he strays from his own stated lofty ideals, moreover, he gives his critics fresh ammunition. Just this week, he was excoriated by the left-leaning San Francisco Chronicle for refusing their reporters access to a Bay area fundraiser. The paper retaliated with an editorial that accused Obama of making a mockery of his “most transparent” claim.

He has also made a mockery of his promise of bipartisanship, attacking the opposition party incessantly, calling them “the enemy” and telling them “they can come for the ride, but they gotta sit in back.” And that was while Obama still had a majority in both houses of Congress. Since control of the House of Representatives was ceded to the GOP in 2010, his remonstrations against them have grown only louder. He decries almost daily the partisan gridlock the Republicans created but fails to acknowledge that his own party, which has rejected many of his proposals as too radical, shares responsibility.

Despite his vow that influence peddlers would be kept at arm’s length from his administration, his campaign’s newest hire is a longtime Washington lobbyist with ties to corporations that have very deep pockets. Today, Chris Stirewalt of FOX News reports that Obama will break his “campaign finance purity” pledge by accepting donations from lobbying groups.

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