How do you solve a problem like Obama: Let the games begin

posted at 4:15 pm on November 21, 2011 by Howard Portnoy
[ Elections ]   

With apologies to Rodgers and Hammerstein, a spate of headlines today touching on a common theme—the relative electability of Barack Obama in 2012—has prompted some musings.

Leading the pack this morning was a Wall Street Journal article by Pat Caddell and Doug Schoen, two of the more rational living Democratic pollsters, arguing that Obama should step aside to make way for “the one candidate who would become, by acclamation, the nominee of the Democratic Party: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.”

The suggestion is not an original one, nor is it surprising coming from a pair of old-school and hence centrist Democrats. Their argument is intriguing, within reason. They write:

Having unique experience in government as first lady, senator and now as Secretary of State, Mrs. Clinton is more qualified than any presidential candidate in recent memory, including her husband.

I would agree that Clinton has made a decent showing as secretary of state, but that is largely a function of context: She is a member of a presidential cabinet that contains as many kooks and boobs as it does statesmen. In the company of the likes of Timothy Geithner, Eric Holder, Janet Napolitano, and Steven Chu, it is easy to look competent. Which is in no way to say that Clinton has been devoid of missteps since signing on as head of State.

Caddell and Schoen’s column must cut ice because it touched a nerve at Salon.com, which issued a “rebuttal” of sorts frankly (if amusingly) titled “Fake Democratic pollsters have stupid idea.” The author, Alex Pareene, calls Caddell and Schoen “two loser ‘Democratic’ ‘pollsters’,” implying that they are neither and claiming that they are arguing that

if Democrats want to succeed electorally, they must immediately cease being Democrats, and become, instead, Republicans.

Interesting. I wouldn’t have thought support for Hillary Clinton was big among Republicans.

Andrew Malcolm, writing at Investors Business Daily, announces the official beginning of the “Dump Obama” movement, asking, “Guess who’d replace him?” His column, too, seems to follow Caddell and Schoen’s, except that he agrees with their prescription, writing:

Despite a call for a primary challenge by Sen. Bernie Sanders, no one seriously expected one to emerge. Although such intra-party struggles allow unhappy ideological factions to vent frustrations, of which the left has many with Obama, they also virtually foreclose victory in the ensuing general elections.

However, there’s still ample time for simmering party unhappiness with Obama and the growing fear of losing the White House and the Senate to reach a boiling point. So, the big money folks on both coasts quietly go to Obama next spring, urge him to be a realist and pull the plug on his reelection plans.

Finally, there is Richard Salsman’s article in Forbes titled “President Obama’s Hopeless ‘Malaise’ Moment.” Instead of focusing on Democrats’ frustration with Obama, he addresses Obama’s frustrations with just about everyone but mainly his favorite whipping boys, the Republicans in Congress and the corporate “fat cats” on Wall Street.

He equates Obama’s current predicament to that of another extremely unpopular Democratic president, Jimmy Carter. Hence the title of the piece. Salsman writes:

Just like Carter’s anti-capitalist mentality, Obama’s also calls for ‘sacrifice’ (as if that’s ‘noble’), instead of celebrating those among us who seek to live and gain by creating and exchanging new values, whether material or intangible. For Carter and Obama, those are ‘greedy’ and ‘selfish’ pursuits (true) which only deprive our lives of true meaning (false). As such, each man imposed regulatory-spending-tax-monetary regimes that stifled private-sector incentives, sapped entrepreneurial vitality, and chilled investor risk-taking.

Another problem that Obama shares with Carter is an implicit vote of no confidence from his own party. Although the budget deal in Congress recently fell through, it is one brokered by congressional Democrats and Republicans. Obama’s own deal had been roundly rejecting by his fellow party members as well as the “enemy” party he is so fond of lambasting.

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