Want to go ice-skating on the river Styx with me?
This is a monumental upset, and even the craftiest liberal spin doctors are having a hard time making this a state issue. This is huge, and nationwide, and President Obama couldn’t have done conservatism a bigger favor than going to campaign for Coakley. Even The Nation notes the pie on Obama’s face.
Our esteemed president’s behavior and rhetoric over the next week—up to and including the State of the Union address—shall tell us quite a lot about what to expect in 2010 and 2012. The best thing he could do politically (for himself) is find a significant amount of humility, ask forgiveness, and ask again for the cooperation of the American people in that spirit. (How did Clinton get reelected? There’s a big part of the answer. Victor Davis Hanson today is instructive, as well as hilarious on the front end.)
However, as I’ve blogged before, I have doubts such things are in him. Moreover, we already have indications he’s going to come out swinging. The One is angry with you, ladies and gentlemen, for daring to defy his obvious Greatness. Now you’re going to get it even harder.
Obama’s complete day-to-day political tone deafness is something no one could have reasonably predicted, and as I’ve said, it’s doing a lot of the job of an organized opposition all by itself. He’s on the ropes now like he hasn’t yet been, and “the pivot” is strongly indicated. Without it, he may politically perish.
So I hope he’s good and angry, with lots of rhetorical finger-wagging and what-not, as he lectures us on our shortcomings one week from tonight.
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He’s already said, in his interview with ABC, that he hasn’t managed to get rid of the rancor in DC and that he had to try harder (codeword: the conservatives aren’t cooperating).
Is he really this tone-deaf? Is he really so egotistical that he is incapable of adjusting his approach? I thought not for a very long time, but if he really does come out swinging after this smackdown…wow.
I said in one of my posts a while back that the Right will take back the White House if two things happen: 1) Obama keeps stumbling along the way he has been, and 2) if the Republicans find that one great candidate to rally behind.
At the rate Obama’s going, especially given that he shows no signs of changing, I don’t think we even need #2 anymore…
Remember when Reagan was elected? He swept in with tons of support, representatives and senators. Was he able to start implementing his priorities right away? No. Why? Because when Reagan took office he realized that until the economy was better nothing else could get done. So, he tabled his plans for quite a long while. I wonder how long the current administration will continue to ignore the economy (other than pretending to throw 800 billion at it) and blame Bush. I heard today that we Americans are angry going back not just THIS year, but the 8 years before that. Hmmmmm….
I expect that he’s still not going to buy me dinner first.
I’m harboring the fear yet that the conservative strike-back is peaking too soon. The tea parties were great, but are now back-burner. The governor victories were great, but are already old news. Brown’s victory is great… for now.
Do the nation’s conservatives have the cogliones to keep the momentum going? Can they keep the fight fresh?