Sunday, January 24, 2010
Obama’s first-year faux populism funk
My Herald colleagues, Howie, Peter and Margery, all offer their assessments of O’s first year. … Peter, whose political views I rarely agree with, is probably closest to the mark: The economy is killing Obama. Yesterday’s Washington Post-Kaiser-Harvard exit poll from Tuesday’s Massachusetts election tends to confirm that. But the discontent isn’t so narrow and simple. How the president has responded to the economy is also key – and the same WP-Kaiser-Harvard poll confirms that voters think the president and Dems have veered seriously off track. Think health-care. Think cap-and-trade. Think of the $787 billion economic stimulus bill that was really just a disgusting Dem spending orgy, with minimal WPA-style projects. Think how it was Massachusetts voters who sent this signal. … Hub Blog’s dart throwing skills were way off on Tuesday (undoubtably due to elbow problems), but my accompanying list of factors impacting Tuesday’s vote wasn’t far off, if you believe the exit polls. …
George Will:
My Herald colleagues, Howie, Peter and Margery, all offer their assessments of O’s first year. … Peter, whose political views I rarely agree with, is probably closest to the mark: The economy is killing Obama. Yesterday’s Washington Post-Kaiser-Harvard exit poll from Tuesday’s Massachusetts election tends to confirm that. But the discontent isn’t so narrow and simple. How the president has responded to the economy is also key – and the same WP-Kaiser-Harvard poll confirms that voters think the president and Dems have veered seriously off track. Think health-care. Think cap-and-trade. Think of the $787 billion economic stimulus bill that was really just a disgusting Dem spending orgy, with minimal WPA-style projects. Think how it was Massachusetts voters who sent this signal. … Hub Blog’s dart throwing skills were way off on Tuesday (undoubtably due to elbow problems), but my accompanying list of factors impacting Tuesday’s vote wasn’t far off, if you believe the exit polls. …
George Will:
If Obama can now resist the temptation of faux populism, if he does not rage, like Lear on the heath, against banks, he can be what Americans, eager for adult supervision, elected him to be - a prudent grownup. For this elegant and intelligent man to suddenly discover his inner William Jennings Bryan (“You shall not crucify America upon a cross of credit-default swaps”) would be akin to Fred Astaire donning coveralls and clodhoppers.That’s part of the first-year Obama disappointment: He’s elegant, intelligent and still popular – and, Rush Limbaught aside, people still want him to succeed. But he’s not going to succeed by lurching from Pelosi leftism to Bryan populism.
