Mort Zuckerman’s post at The Daily Beast is blistering:
Obama’s ability to connect with voters is what launched him. But what has surprised me is how he has failed to connect with the voters since he’s been in office. He’s had so much overexposure. You have to be selective. He was doing five Sunday shows. How many press conferences? And now people stop listening to him. The fact is he had 49.5 million listeners to first speech on the economy. On Medicare, he had 24 million. He’s lost his audience. He has not rallied public opinion. He has plunged in the polls more than any other political figure since we’ve been using polls. He’s done everything wrong. Well, not everything, but the major things.
I don’t consider it a triumph. I consider it a disaster.
When everything’s a priority, nothing’s a priority.
Gee…didn’t I post the samething on the economy. Scare the crap out of medium to small business owners and you get people who have had the crap scared out of them…not people who are willing to take on some additional risk and get the economy going.
It was said during the election Obama was not ready for prime time. It was true.
Andrew Sullivan’s response to Zuckerman. Sullivan’s self-delusion here is pretty striking. Notice he makes no mention of unemployment.
I’d say Sullivan is a liberal Democrat now. Seems he can’t quite make up his mind on politics. Its amazing anyone still gives his opinions any attention at all.
I think he’s English, without any strong connection with or particular insight into American politics. An Oakeshottian conservative, something pretty foreign to American strains of conservatism.
I’m not familiar with Oakeshott; Wikipedia says he’s an important conservative intellect who has been characterized as a liberal.
When he writes about American politics, he seems to lack any understanding of the checks and balances in our system and operate from the assumption that we have a parliament and Obama is the prime minister and his Congress should salute and obey. And then don’t get me started on his understanding of American religious views. Far more messy (and interesting) than his charicatures.
I also think that, like most Europeans, he doesn’t have a solid idea of the amount of government we have. Here in the States we don’t have a strictly hierarchical system in which city, county, or provincial governments are departments of the national government. States are sovereign here, at least notionally.
And, as you know, here in Illinois we’ve got literally thousands of distinct entities that are able to levy taxes without a by your leave from Congress or even the state legislature. School districts, forest preserve districts, sanitary districts. There’s a maze of them.
“Gee…didn’t I post the samething on the economy. Scare the crap out of medium to small business owners and you get people who have had the crap scared out of them…not people who are willing to take on some additional risk and get the economy going”
You never do answer this. Who is going to buy that stuff? With what? What is it that they are so afraid of?
Steve
Yeah, he’s not ready for prime time. Unlike . . . who exactly? The unstable Mr. McCain or the out-of-touch Mr. Paul?
Obama was handed two botched wars, a financial meltdown and a looming depression. It looks as if we avoided a depression. And a financial system meltdown. We’re still getting out of Iraq. And we’re doubling down on Afghanistan.
A year ago we thought we’d have to start learning hobo signs. Now we’re muddling through. Not ready for prime time my ass.
Translation: But Moooooom, he did it first.
Really, that’s the best? “Well…sure he sucks, but they all suck.”
Like I’ve said before, I’m simply amazed that people think there is a pony in activist government.
In other words, he’s continuing Bush’s policies. And a depression was quite unlikely. The economy/government today is very much unlike what we had in 1929 and prior.