So I finally read the Luce piece Dan Foster mentioned below. Mickey’s take strikes me as basically right, particularly the bit about how such pieces never blame the president.
But it seems to me Obama is to blame for his current woes and in a way that is unique to him. The upshot of the Luce article is that Obama is still in campaign mode. That’s a point conservatives have been making for a year, so it’s a bit funny to hear liberals suddenly credit this analysis.
The “permanent campaign” is a temptation for lots of presidents. But Obama’s circumstances are special. He’s never really run anything of significance save his presidential campaign (all praise and honor to Harvard Law Review notwithstanding). He’s never governed. Even his limited Senate experience was really just another way of campaigning for president. I remember arguing with liberals about his qualifications during the general election and you’d often hear: He’s run such a brilliant campaign!
Yes, yes he did. But that’s not governing. Obama’s using the one experience in his life where he successfully ran a significant enterprise — his own campaign — and he’s designing his presidency around it, because that’s all he knows. It’s fine to blame the four horsemen, or to scapegoat Rahm. But the problem starts at the top.