Headline by Peter Wehner of Commentary, and I know what you’re thinking: what do you mean “entering?” Hasn’t Obama been in a world all his own since drinking deeply from the 64-oz sized cup of transnational postmodernism back in college, the one Big Gulp flavor that Mayor Bloomberg also approves of? But as we’ve been seeing week after week, it’s obviously Bunkertime for the president — or it would be, if there weren’t a continuing series of million dollar fundraisers that required his presence:
No president in human history has quite equaled Obama when it comes to blaming others for his problems. And during the 2008 campaign, everything wrong with America could be laid squarely at the feet of President Bush. But now Obama, having presided over what at this stage must qualify as among the most inept presidencies in American history, is complaining because he’s being held accountable.
What is fairly astonishing in all this is the utter lack of self-awareness by the president. A jolting collision is occurring between his own self-conception (Obama views himself as a world-historical figure and Great Man) and the multiple and multiplying failures of his presidency. Obama appears incapable of processing the truth or coming to grips with reality. And so he’s spinning tales day after day, including his fantastic (and thoroughly discredited) claim that “Since I’ve been president, federal spending has risen at the lowest pace in nearly 60 years.”
Obama has now entered a world all his own. It’s a world where up is down, hot is cold, north is south, and Barack Obama is fiscally responsible and blameless.
In its own way, it’s a fascinating psychodrama that’s unfolding. Given that there are still 146 days until the election, it’s hard to imagine where the president will eventually end up.
One place it ends up is with the World’s Biggest Celebrity desperately trying to curry favor with his fellow media elites whilst shaking them down, John Nolte of Big Hollywood writes:
Though a major part of the President’s re-election strategy is to paint his opponent, Governor Mitt Romney, as out-of-touch, this is what President Common Man told a room full of A-listers last night, that included Sarah Jessica Parker, her husband Matthew Broderick, Meryl Streep, and Vogue editor/Syria propagandist Anna Wintour:
“You’re the tie-breaker,” he said. “You’re the ultimate arbiter of which direction this country goes.”
Let us all step back for a moment to remember that this is the same man who endorses Occupy Wall Street.
Obama spoke these creepy words at a $40,000-per-plate fundraiser that raked in a total of $2 million and took place in Sarah Jessica Parker’s home. Obama spoke these creepy words to the most out-of-touch crowd in the history of out-of-touch crowds. I know people who are out-of-touch who would look at this crowd and say, “Boy, are these people out-of-touch.”
Meanwhile at Ricochet, Troy Senik watched Obama phone in his boilerplate economics speech yesterday, and responded that “Obama Gives Up,” complete with a”woe is me” pose from Obama* in the photo accompanying his post:
You know that point in a declining relationship where you can no longer work up the energy to decide what to do for the evening, so you just stay at home, watch television, and hope to avoid eye contact with your significant other? That’s where Team Obama is right now.
This is year eight ennui from an administration that’s five months away from a reelection vote. Right now, the Obama team is Tom Hanks on the raft in “Castaway” and the second term is Wilson, gently rolling away on the waves — except, rather than screaming at the top of their lungs, they’ve decided that this is a good time for a nap.
What’s the strategy here? Is this a reset speech? We’ve already had, by my count, 87 of those (to be fair, they didn’t specify which summer was going to be “Recovery Summer”). With this new speech, Obama is now officially resetting expectations more often than Harold Camping.
Do they really think their major problem is that the public’s insufficiently aware that the administration blames George W. Bush for its economic problems? If so, take it from this former White House speechwriter, Obama communications staff: there has never been a president whose problems stemmed from difficulty getting his message out. For God’s sake, George H.W. Bush made one offhanded remark at a press conference 20 years ago and hasn’t received a Christmas card from the broccoli lobby since. People listen when the president talks — except when he’s repeating himself ad nauseam to no great effect. There’s a difference between people not listening to you and people not liking what you’re saying.
Ed Morrissey describes Obama’s summer reruns as a case of “Lucy and the football.” Also playing up the Peanuts theme is an ad by American Crossroads with a wonderfully subversive Peanuts Teacher wah-wah trumpet refrain in response to Obama’s verbal boilerplate:
By the way, recall that last summer, Obama attempted to bigfoot the GOP presidential candidates by following them around in what “The Darth Vader Battle Bus,” that omnious-looking black Secret Service bus from which Obama would randomly emerge to give pressers while being thrown off his game by midwestern Tea Party members.
Turn about is fair play for the Romney campaign: “Ohio: Romney Campaign Bus Drives Circles Around Obama Speech Site Honking Its Horn…”
And similarly, “Romney’s Psych Out Ad” echoes in more ways than one, the Obama campaign’s attack on John McCain in September of 2008. Compare the two clips here.
In a related development, John Nolte applauds “Mitt’s Magnificent Management of the Malevolent Media:”
Though I had misgivings about Mitt Romney in other areas, it became pretty clear fairly early on that he was a tough, shrewd candidate backed by a tough, shrewd campaign team that showed some real signs of promise in the media arena.
Since securing the nomination, though, Team Romney has shown more than promise. In fact, they’ve shown a real brilliance in the handling of Obama’s Media Palace Guards — from their unwillingness to disavow Donald Trump; to ruining David Axelrod’s media event; to a stubborn refusal to get sidetracked off an economic message by media-created distractions; to an understanding that New Media is now a powerhouse able to push a message into the daily political narrative — something the corrupt media no longer owns completely.
Today, deep in this Financial Times piece, we learn that when it comes to handling the media, the Romney campaign is even doing the little things right:
The Orlando event had all the traits of the tightly managed Romney campaign – from the last-minute notification and limited access for the media to the favoured venue, a local small business.
As soon as he hit the rope line to talk to supporters, Mr Romney’s staff turned up the rock music played through speakers scattered around the hall to deafening levels, as they always do.
The music, aimed at preventing reporters overhearing or recording comments to supporters that could prove embarrassing, is one of the myriad ways the campaign tries to control its message.
How many times have we seen the corrupt media throw a GOP campaign off course due to a supporter’s question in a rope line. It’s all a game of gotcha, a way for the media to talk about anything other than Obama’s failed policies.
Romney and company have obviously figured out what John McCain never did: That if you play on the turf the media demands you play on, that if you seek their approval, you will lose.
Though it helps enormously if you have an opponent who’s doing his best to implode. And as again, with Obama’s churlish, Thomas Dewey-esque response to Neil Munro of the Daily Caller today, we end yet another week talking about the out-of-touch, elitist mindset of the president, rather than his policies. Or as a fictional former president (who also watched the world get destroyed on his watch) might say, “Gentlemen, you can’t ask questions here, this is a press conference!”
It’s enough to make you wonder if the Styrofoam pillars have finally collapsed. If they haven’t, help to give them another push — but no reason to get cocky, either.
* I was going to call Obama’s mood “hangdog,” but as the Romney campaign itself recently pointed out, that takes on a whole new meaning when it comes to the president, doesn’t it?
Update: General Electric-owned TV network that told you last year that political clip art could kill now mocking Romney’s bus tour with montage of exploding buses. Video at Hot Air.
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