Literally hot, considering the arson and looting going on Ferguson. In-between the end of the (first) Cold War between America and Russia and the dawn of the War on Terror, America enjoyed its brief timeout from horrible world events. The World Wide Web was ascendent, Bruce, Arnold, Harrison, Clint, Tom and Mel were producing watchable movies, and Seinfeld gave us “The Summer of George.”
Well, it was fun while it lasted. Welcome to, as Chris Stirewalt dubs at Fox News, “The Summer of LBJ:”
What’s brought the president back to town for two days in the midst of his Martha’s Vineyard vacation? It might be anything. But for now, the White House wants you to know that the president is holding meetings about two hot topics: the ongoing unrest in Ferguson, Mo. and the newly resumed U.S. war against Islamist separatists in Iraq. How do you know Team Obama wants you to know those things? Because an administration that forbids reporters from seeing even happy events is allowing journalists to observe the president talking to senior officials about these unhappy subjects today. And for this president, there could hardly be two subjects more sensitive than his reinvigorating the war he took credit for ending and for why the Democratic governor of Missouri has ordered National Guard troops to suppress race riots. It’s Obama’s Summer of LBJ: war abroad, unrest at home and a party slipping out of his grasp.
In both cases, gross overreach by a president who thought government can (a) do anything and therefore (b) should do everything led to a massive sense of malaise and dissipation amongst his fellow disillusioned socialists once reality set in.
Unlike Johnson though, who had a firm grasp on the comings and goings of Congress and the Senate, former President Obama is simply phoning it in. Or as John Hayward tweets, “I was going to make a joke about Obama being livid when he read about Ferguson in the papers, but he beat me to it.”
Oh, and speaking of the Summer of LBJ redux:
This is pretty much how I figured Obama’s second term would look. pic.twitter.com/j5wuVTGyKI
— jon gabriel (@exjon) August 18, 2014
We’ve all seen this movie before. The real question is, why did people vote for a repeat?
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