Not a bad summary of how Obama got elected
David Warren writes, of Barack Obama’s recent “video to Iran” PR attempt (I say “attempt” charitably, for it is likely to turn into a PR debacle for the President of the United States):
This was one of several end-of-week media performances, as Mr. Obama went back into “campaign mode” after a break of several months. The message of the polls is that he had better start selling his policies harder, because they are showing signs of not going over very well. Moreover, the unpolled elites, including those within the Democratic Party, have started to ask questions aloud about whether their man is competent; and as we know from painful history, such uncertainties from an elite tend to “trickle down.”
What the polls can’t say directly, and thus perhaps the White House can’t yet hear, is that the policies themselves are diminishing Mr. Obama’s appeal. There are indications of this in the polls themselves, but they are subtle. On one issue after another, from bail-outs to the environment, Medicare, life issues, foreign policy, the polls now tend to confirm what this pundit and a few other incorrigible reactionaries knew from the outset: that a plurality of American voters had embraced Mr. Obama not because of, but despite the policies he was signalling. They most certainly liked the man and his “temperament,” and they most certainly wanted the Republicans out. But it did not follow that they wanted their government to lurch to the left.
The whole article is worth reading, as is normal for Mr. Warren’s works. And I think he’s basically correct: voters in America wanted a change, wanted something different than what George W. Bush had been giving them for the last eight years, and did not find John McCain to be a sufficient deviation from that standard such that they would be willing to support him.
Which left Obama as the natural choice.
And yet, Obama was the poorer choice as well, for while he did represent a departure — in most, though not all, respects — from Bush and Co., the nature of that departure was extreme. I suspect that many American voters thought that Obama’s various prostrations before the leftmost of left-wing ideals were simply rhetorical flourishes from a brilliant orator.
Now that the man is in office, two things have become apparent. First, Obama is by no means a brilliant orator, at least not when separated from his teleprompter. He reads prepared texts fairly well, but that’s about it.
But secondly, and then more importantly, what has become apparent is that Obama evidently actually believes in the left-wing causes he gave voice to during his campaign. These were not just rhetorical flourishes, but open and reasonably honest statements about the man and the shape his policies would take.
I don’t think most Americans were ready for that, nor were they expecting it. Which is a real pity, because it’s what they now will have to deal with for the next three and a half years.
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