“He went to Massachusetts to campaign against Scott Brown; Brown is now a senator. He went to New Jersey to campaign against Chris Christie, who’s now governor. He went to Virginia to campaign against Bob McDonnell, who’s now governor. He campaigned for the health-care plan extensively, it became less popular. He campaigned in 2010 for the Democrats, they were shellacked. He began, in a sense, his presidency flying to Copenhagen to get Chicago the Olympics; Chicago was the first city eliminated. There is no evidence that the man has the rhetorical powers that he is relying on.” — Columnist George F. Will, speaking on ABC’s This Week.
Øbama has the reverse Midas touch.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseEverything he touches turns to brass.
/geo@LoneWolfLiberties™
That reminds me, I'll have to stop at the store, I checked in the brass house this morning and we're all out of brasspaper. Holy brass, I'm glad I remembered.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMore like everything Obama touches turns into something that circles the toilet bowl before going down.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseCouple weeks he's coming to Texas for the first time since Perry got in the race....
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI hope Brad Watson gets to interview Obama again.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseFirst, George Will is great. I don't always agree with him, but no one can be more biting with just a few sentences than Will.
Yes, Obama has been an abject failure on the campaign trail, and even when delivering prepared remarks, but it is his extemporaneous speaking - where he's most likely to speak truthfully and candidly - that has really been his undoing.
I think it all goes back to and started with that Skip Gates controversy. Obama, without knowing ANY of the facts, was quick to condemn a patrolmen just doing his job. That didn't sit very well with a lot of people who were and are otherwise inclined to support a Democrat president. When Obama lets people see who he really is, fewer and fewer people actually like what they see.
The teleprompter isn't working for him, but his off the cuff stuff is even worse. He's a fast ball pitcher who has no velocity and can't locate a pitch to save his life, and we're only in the 2nd inning. If you listen closely, you can begin to hear activity in the bullpen.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMore like a knuckle-baller. Wobbly, slow, and unpredictable.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseScott- That truth about Obama pre-dates the Skip Gates thing by decades. But I think you are onto something. "The Cambridge police acted stupidly" is the moment when the mask slipped and the class-envious community organizer with the soul of a mediocre grad student showed. It is the moment that the vanguard of a now-growing cadre of independent voters who voted for abstract hope and change -- among lunchpail Americans, among soccer moms and dads, among laid-off middle managers, among small business people frozen out of credit markets, among underwater homeowners -- first had the jaw-dropping thought of "Yikes! Who is this person really?!"
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYes, the bullpen is warming up, and the name on the back of the uniform is Clinton. I've been saying it all along- the Dems are going to get him off the ticket and put up Hillary.It will be tricky, and they'll lose the black vote(not to the republicans, they'll just not vote at all), but they'll gain more than enough wussy independents, and squishy moderates to pull it off.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThere has never been any evidence that Obama has any rhetorical skills. The only time that Obama is at his best is when he is delivering a speech where no one can challenge him directly. On top of this, all of his speeches are utterly forgetful. They're so bad they don't even go into the first ear.
Obama vastly oversold himself, but only he knew the extent to which there was more hype than substance.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseObama is Titanic. The movie. Everyone got swept up in the spectacle and overlooked the really kerappy dialogue.
(Really? Is the correct spelling that objectionable?)
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYes Obama always spoke worse than W when Obama spoke off the cuff. Always "ahh"ing and "umm"ing, more so than Mr Bush.
And yet I fear he (Obama man) will be re-elected, Obamacare will be here forever and we will be massively in debt for ever.
I am sorry for such ODS but what would happen if the election were held today versus our strongest candidate?
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"I am sorry for such ODS but what would happen if the election were held today versus our strongest candidate?"
I'm usually the voice of pessimism, but I would point out that elections don't happen in vacuums. They are the culmination of a furious campaign season, during which time the "people" becoming increasingly more focused. Right now, people aren't which is why Obama loses to the generic Republican but wins against any particular candidate.
People don't like the job Obama is doing, so he loses to the abstract Republican candidate. But, they don't really know the names of the Republican candidates, much less their positions or personalities, so they reflexively choose Obama in these polls. Generally, people are more afraid of the unknown than they are of the uncomfortable. It's the same dynamic that affects people (mostly women) are so reluctant to get out of abusive marriages.
Ronald Regan trailed Carter by WAY more than 20-points at this point in his campaign. So long as we don't nominate anyone with incredibly high negative numbers, which is Palin and is soon to be Bachmann, we're golden. Perry might have to work a bit harder than a Romney or a Christie in a general election, but he can still beat Obama, perhaps convincingly.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMakes total sense: Ronald Regan trailed Carter by WAY more than 20-points at this point in his campaign. So long as we don't nominate anyone like Reagan we will be fine...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAs it happens Mr. Wilde, there is no Reagan on the horizon, nor will there be.
Reagan was the Man for His Time, we now need the Man for THIS Time.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWrong, we need Palin to take him down because that would make it even better. It would be sweet to let the world watch her kick his ass. After the last 4 years we deserve a REAL win.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNever mind negatives. Reagan's negatives were high at this point as well. Thanks to the babbling idiots in the cocktail party GOP, Reagan was seen as a dumb movie actor, polarizing, not likely to draw independents, a warmonger more likely to provoke conflict with the Soviet Union, yada yada yada (a little Seinfeld lingo there).
If the GOP nominates a conservative, they win in a Reaganesque rout. A squish will make it a lot closer and a lot harder to undo the damage done by the Dictator in Training Pants.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAdded thought: Obama loses to Daffy Duck next year if he is the GOP nominee.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseCT, I'll raise you on the pessimism front. I think Obamacare will be here forever even if the GOP candidate wins the White House in 2012. Sure, they all say they will get it repealed. That's to get votes from the base. Once in office, they'll lose interest in what would be a long and difficult battle to repeal.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseObamacare will be ruled unconstitutional, at least the all important mandate, which will kill it.
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