It's Not 2008 Anymore

In 2008, journalists loved to report on candidate Obama drawing record crowds. Today? Well, insert obligatory Spinal Tap “Selective” reference here: “Obama camp — We are intentionally limiting crowd size at rallies.”

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In 2008, the Politico Website went all-in to help elect Obama — note the number of names of then-Politico journalists on the infamous JournoList. Today, as Steve Green writes, Politico is reduced to plaintively begging the president for a mercy interview: “You Never Call Anymore, You Never Write.” As Steve adds, “Here’s a tip, gents: He wouldn’t walk all over you if you weren’t so carpet-like.”

Speaking of the JournoList, former(?) member Ta-Nehisi Coates writes in the New York Times that Obama has become Dick Cheney. As Moe Lane writes in response:

  1. Coates has it precisely backwards: we are not afraid of Barack Obama now.  Which is why everybody in the GOP is mocking him.  And while I mocked Barack Obama in 2008 I (and a bunch of other people) were effectively blocked from propagated by the mainstream GOP, which frankly was scared of Obama back then.  This cannot be brought up again enough times: Barack Obama has always been like this.  Some of us told you so, back then.  You should have believed us.
  2. Coates also seems to think that Barack Obama has turned into Dick Cheney.  That is, of course, absurd: if Obama was Cheney he’d be doing a better job, not to mention a more ethical one.  No, what Barack Obama has turned into is the nightmare devil-troll edition of Dick Cheney that lurks in the collective subconscious of the American Left.  Which, again, both means less competence and ethical awareness than the original.
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Then: “CNN Host D. L. Hughley: Republicans ‘Literally Look Like Nazi Germany.'”

Now: “Touré Invokes Nazi Term ‘Niggardize’ To Demonize Romney.”

OK, the left red-lining the Godwin meter is pretty much a constant in every presidential election. Just ask Harry Truman.

But unlike the MSM’s demolition job on Sarah Palin, at Commentary Jonathan Tobin writes, “Campaign to Demonize Ryan Won’t Work”:

The attacks on Ryan are politically tone deaf because it is not enough to merely target a man’s views to get voters to put them down as an extremist. Those attacks must be linked to something in the candidate’s personality, demeanor or record that strikes the public as disqualifying. But in Ryan, Democrats are confronted by a person with a positive vision, intellectual depth and integrity and a nice personal touch that has been able to transcend partisan differences both in Congress and in his Wisconsin Congressional district where he has consistently won the support of Democrats and independents. Negative ads can be useful but in Ryan, Democrats may be confronting a target that is just too smart and too appealing to besmirch with impunity. Nor can they be sure that by doing so they are not hurting their party with Catholics who might otherwise be enticed to back Obama in November.

The Paul Ryan who toured Florida this week with his 78-year-old Medicare recipient mother is not one that will be so easily trashed as a threat to old people. Expecting female voters to fall in lockstep with Obama merely by screaming about abortion may be equally futile.

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In a post titled, “When Truth Goes Viral,” Stacy McCain writes, “Iowahawk’s observation — ‘Paul Ryan represents Obama’s most horrifying nightmare: math’ — is well on its way to becoming world famous, and may yet become the final epitaph on Obama’s presidency.”

Finally, after spending 2008 putting Barack Obama into Soviet-style messianic poses and cover stories comparing him to Lincoln, as Doug Ross writes, “The Newsweek Cover You Never Thought You’d See — It’s real. And it’s spectacular:”

Two words: Preference Cascade. This will accelerate.

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