February 9, 2010

2010 elections: The logical conclusion of 2008

This is what I could recover from what may have been one of my best posts in some time, but has been lost thanks to stupid Blogger on Google. I found some rough notes on what I was going to write. I'm too angry to even bother re-writing it right now.

Following the opening paragraph below, is the rough draft of what I had intended to post, repleat with examples that had been completed, and a lot of 2010 analysis that I made the mistake of writing directly into blogger rather than drawing in freaking crayons and mailing to Google. ARG!!!!!

Maybe if I get over it, I'll pik up where this leaves off. Apologies in advance for any spelling or grammar errors. I'm done for today.


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Democrats are undoubtedly still perplexed at the steadily eroding public support for President Obama. You can see it in their actions. Those who had rushed to support his agenda, from Nancy Pelosi to Blanche Lincoln have either clung desperately (the irony of using that phrase is sweet) to the agenda, tried to come up with their own path or else abandon it (falsely or genuinely) and him entirely. You can see it also in the chattering class - from Jon Stewart taking the occasional and previously unimaginable, shot at the President to those expressing utter dismay at his lack of results, to those clinging to his supposed brilliance by ferociously defending him with the same verve that they had while attacking President Bush.

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But the predicament the President, and Democrats in general find themselves in is a, no the, logical outcome of the events of 2008. There was no other way that things could turn out. And there is very little leeway now for Democrats to impact the outcome of the 2010 elections. At this point, it's a little bit like a convicted felon awaiting either a death sentence or life without parole. You know one of the two is going to happen and you make your pitch for the latter but clemency or a pardon is just not coming.

Even Republicans, having been chastised by the public in 2006 and again 2008 were disoriented by the Obama momentum. John McCain wasn't running against Obama - he was running against his pre-ordained myth. After the election for a time Republicans just shut up. Or tried to play along for fear of losing even more in 2010.

A while ago I mentioned detecting a small shift in the public mood and that as a conservative I was suddenly a bit worried about 2010. That feeling of a shift has thankfully passed. But despite the fact that I believe the Democrats are in big trouble there is still the possibility that Republicans can blow it. So the worry is still there. Worry is better than complacency and ironically complacency is one of my biggest worries. But, as is often the case, I digress.

Most would be shocked by where things stand today. Obama's job approval ratings are at or near the underwater mark, depending on the poll. But there are those of us, plenty actually who knew this day would come - that people would wake up to the reality of an Obama Presidency.

The President campaigned in 2008 based on saying a lot of things that would be difficult or impossible to fulfill. He also positioned himself in a way that put him in opposition to himself. Basically, he tried to portray himself as a centrist and as a far left progressive at the same time, depending on what suited the moment or the audience.

Now the public, individually expected him to govern one way or the other, depending on their own personal transference upon him. If they were moderates they believed what they heard when he said he was post-partisan. They believed his words about middle class taxes not going up. They believed he would clean up and change Washington and that he would put Congressional back room dealing out in the open on CSPAN. Some of them heard Afghanistan is the war of necessity.

The far left wing of the party on the other hand, heard "out of Iraq", Cap and Trade, and single payer universal health care. They heard close Guantanamo or they heard student loan forgiveness.

And when candidate Obama talked to Joe the Plumber about spreading the wealth, conservatives felt they had their smoking gun of socialism. Surely the center would abandon him. But they didn't - it was too late. He had become larger than life by campaigning in a way that allowed everyone, including conservatives even, to project upon him their own image of him and his agenda.

Simon and Garfunkel in the song The Boxer put it best: "a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest".

No man can possibly deliver on divergent promises. And his promises ARE divergent. As a result it was only natural the Obama's support would erode. It had to - no other outcome was ever possible.

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1300+ more words MISSING.

Stupid Google. I'm seriosuly thinking about moving to Wordpress.

1 comment:

  1. i seriously enjoy your writing taste, very remarkable,
    don't give up and also keep posting mainly because it just truly worth to look through it.
    looking forward to look over even more of your own writing, thankx ;)

    ReplyDelete

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