Liberals Still Believe Their Own Propoganda

The narrative on President Obama is finally turning.  Liberals are becoming disillusioned with him.  But their reasons for the disillusion, are still based in their own misconception of the state of the nation.

Liberals have a world view that isn't helping them as far as the midterm elections goes.  Every facet of how this election plays out is being impacted by their perception of America and Americans and why their ideas aren't being applauded the way they were back in 2008.  This excerpt from Politico today, clearly encapsulates the problem;

The reality is the opposite. You can argue over whether Obama’s achievements are good or bad on the merits. But especially after Thursday’s vote you can’t argue that Obama is not getting things done. To the contrary, he has, as promised, covered the uninsured, tightened regulations, started to wind down the war in Iraq and shifted focus and resources to Afghanistan, injected more competition into the education system and edged closer to a big energy bill.

The problem is that he and his West Wing turn out to be not especially good at politics, or communications — in other words, largely ineffective at the very things on which their campaign reputation was built. And the promises he made in two years of campaigning turn out to be much less appealing as actual policies.

“I tell you, it’s very frustrating that it’s not breaking through, when you look at these things and their scale,” said a top Obama adviser, who spoke on background to offer a candid take on the state of play. “Can you imagine if Bill Clinton had achieved even one of these? Part of it is because we are divided, even on the left…And part of it is the culture of immediate gratification.”

Maybe 2008 wasn't the enthrallment people like Chris Matthews thought it was.  Politico is right about something.  The fact that the President's agenda is moving forward and that the pre-election narrative of him being a great speaker but possibly lacking experience might have not allow him to accomplish anything in Washington was a flawed assessment.  But from there, the understanding of the left of things goes off the rails. 

 

The problem as liberals perceive it is that the President isn't good at communicating what he and the Democrats have achieved.  The problem as they see it is that they have achieved greatness and no one seems to see it.  That's wrong on two important points and one less major point;

• Everyone knows what he has achieved and they don't seem to like it. Health care is just not popular.
• It disregards everything else the President has failed to achieve (jobs, recovery, stopping the oil spill, stopping Iranian nuclear ambitions to name a few).
• It also disregards the fact that the President has the bully pulpit and has used it extensively until things stopped going his way. He has the loudest megaphone and isn't using it ineffectively, he just isn't using it.

That latter point could be in part as a result of voter disenchantment because he didn't use his megaphone well to begin with, but more likely it has to do with the basics - people don't want a far left government and they do want a government that addresses real world problems (like jobs) far more effectively.

Liberal Democrats may see the problem of Obama as one of aloofness and distance. That betrays a notion that maybe he isn't connecting because he's just too intellectually superior and can't talk to common folk as well as a Sarah Palin might.  But that very notion contradicts the fact that they all talked about his eloquence and how he connected with everyone to get elected.

There's just no grounding Democrats in the reality that people don't like their ideas. Why?  Because for them to face that fact - to face up to the recent comments by Robert Gibbs about Democrats losing big in the mid-term elections - puts them squarely in the face of the notion that their ideas just might not be all that good.  Never mind unpopular, not good. The longer they take to face up to that fact, the worse the November elections will be for them.  I for one hope those delusions aren't disabused until after November.