A selection of headlines from Tuesday, September 7, 2010, in no particular order.
GOP Makes Gains Ahead of Midterms – Balz & Cohen, Washington Post
Obama’s Shrinking Presidency – Richard Cohen, Washington Post
You Say Recession, I Say Depression – John Judis, The New Republic
Obama’s Foreign Policy Has Failed – Peter Beinart, The Daily Beast
As Economy Struggles, Confidence In Obama Wanes – Jay Levine, CBS News
Dems wary of WH’s huge new spending plan… – Darlene Superville, AP
First Read: GOP tidal wave may be building – NBC’s First Read
I could keep going, but I’ve gotten bored with all the copying & pasting — and I think I’ve done enough to drive the point home.
Here we are, the first Tuesday of the campaign season, and the President, his agenda, and his majorities have all been declared fini — by leftwing columnists and left-leading news sources. Whether that’s actually true is debatable, and nothing is settled until election night.
Think back now to 1994. The press didn’t turn on President Clinton like this until after the GOP swept through Congress. Then of course, Clinton triangulated, lured Newt Gingrich into overplaying his hand, and quickly reestablished the “relevance” the MSM was afraid he’d lost.
You’d think the left would be as patient with their Chosen One as they were with Clinton, but no, the End Times Are Nigh, to judge by the headlines.
Can we speculate as to why? Yes! We! Can!
My own theory is that the Complicit Media knew exactly what they were peddling back in 2007-08 — a progressive of no particular merit and no particular accomplishment. But he could sure read a speech, and he could sure pass himself off as a post-partisian moderate — so long as nobody looked too deeply into his past. And the Complicit Media was more that willing to help with that last bit, even though it meant sacrificing whatever was left of its credibility.
So they might also know that this man of no particular merit and no particular accomplishment has reached the limits of his meager abilities, that Obama really can’t turn his Administration around. He hasn’t got the training, the experience, or the temperament to do so. They know it, and now we know it, too. And so the media bloodbath is going to be phenomenal. Even more so, if the Republicans do the near-unthinkable and grab hold of the Senate, too.
That’s my theory, and I could be wrong on any point. But right or wrong, the next 12 months are going to be shockingly instructive about the nature of the media, the American electorate, and our peevish, petulant President.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member