OBAMA’S STRATEGY: Inducing “Scandal Exhaustion?”

I’ve wondered about this myself. But it really only makes sense if you think one of these scandals is a presidency-ender. I don’t expect that. Only one President has ever been forced out, and the unusual confluence of events that got Nixon isn’t likely to replicate. Instead of a knockout punch, these scandals are more likely to be — as various things were in Bush’s second term — more like acid rain, gradually dissolving political capital. Despite Bush’s problems, lefty fantasies of getting rid of him never materialized, but the Dems did take Congress in 2006, and set things up for victory in 2008.

Of course, one interpretation is that a “scandal exhaustion” strategy on the part of the White House indicates that they do think there’s a presidency-ender in there somewhere. And they’re in a better position to know than I am. . . .