Economist Damns Owebama with Faint Praise

The Economist has inched leftward year by year and no longer resembles the solid sensible news magazine, really the only in the English language since Time & Newsweak hit the tank for the Dems back in the Clinton years, of yore. But their bright shiny toy named Barack Hussein Obama has lost its luster. After cataloguing a meager list of accomplishments, The Economist goes on:

...this does not amount to a compelling case for re-election, in the view of either this paper or the American people. More than 60% of voters believe their country to be on the wrong track. Mr Obama’s approval ratings are well under 50%; almost two-thirds of voters are unimpressed (however harshly) by how he has handled the economy. Worn down by the difficulties of office, the great reformer has become a cautious man, surrounded by an insular group of advisers. The candidate who promised bold solutions to the country’s gravest problems turned into the president who failed even to back his own commission’s plans for cutting the deficit.

That's the Simpson-Bowles Commission, which Paul Ryan castigated Owebama for cowardice in ignoring its recommendations.

Were he facing a more charismatic candidate than Mitt Romney or a less extremist bunch than the Republicans, Mr Obama would already be staring at defeat. The fact that the president has had to “go negative” so early and so relentlessly shows how badly he needs the election to be about Mr Romney’s weaknesses rather than his own achievements. A man who four years ago epitomised hope will arrive in Charlotte with a campaign that thus far has been about invoking fear.

Mr Obama must offer more than this, for three reasons. First, a negative campaign may well fail. The Republicans are a rum bunch with a wooden leader; but Mr Romney’s record as an executive and governor is impressive, and his running-mate, Paul Ryan, is a fount of bold ideas. Mr Obama’s strategy of blaming everything on Republican obstructionism will strike many voters as demeaning.

The flip side, left unsaid, of the above observation, is that Obama has to run on his own achievements, which run the gamut of nil to none---except the vastly unpopular ObamaCare, which is the anvil hanging from his neck as he swims to the far shore.

Second, even if negative campaigning works, a re-elected Mr Obama will need the strength that comes from a convincing agenda. Otherwise the Republicans, who will control the House and possibly the Senate too, will make mincemeat of him. And, third, it is not just Mr Obama who needs a plan. America does too. Its finances and its government require a drastic overhaul. Surely this charismatic, thoughtful man has more ideas about what must be done than he has so far let on?

A tempting option will be to galvanise his party base, with talk of more health reform and threats of higher taxes on business and the rich. Rather than redesigning government, he could suck up to the public-sector unions by promising that jobs will not be cut. Rather than cutting entitlement programmes, he could reassure the elderly that America can actually afford them.

Such an approach would fit the pattern of too much of his presidency, and his campaign so far; but it would do America a disservice, and it might not help Mr Obama either. His victory in 2008 relied on reaching beyond the groups that traditionally vote Democratic and bringing in young voters and wealthier whites. Many of them are centrists who are suspicious of Mr Romney, but since they have to foot the bill for government profligacy, they will not vote for a president who promises more of the same.

Sadly, like Oscar Wilde, BHO can resist everything except temptation. And sucking up to the powerful leftist entities resisting tort reform, education reform, and public union cutbacks. The SEIU & Big Pharma have their tenterhooks deep into the Dem DNA & the academy and entertainment complexes are pandered to incessantly by the never-say-no arriviste. Like the fellow in the French play who suddenly discovered he was speaking in prose, BHO has a mid-life crisis in discovering there is no cure for a back without a spine. He can't retrace his steps and find his soul by the wayside.

Appealing to the centre is not easy for Mr Obama. His allies on the left are powerful and, in a country so polarised, the middle ground can be a dangerous place. But there are plenty of things that many on both sides of the political aisle could agree on, including tax and immigration reform, investment in schools and aid to businesses that are creating jobs. Crucially, Mr Obama could explain how he intends to cut the still-soaring debt without pretending that taxing only the rich will help in any meaningful way.

He has demagogued himself into many rhetorical corners, and now he has to figure if he must simply double down and march further into the Russian Winter or perhaps retreat back to the safety of the softer climes...