Can Obama's character be made an issue?....
Redefining Obama. Here is a sleeper character issue: Obama's stupefying self-regard: The One told CBS newsman Steve Kroft (1:16), in a snippet CBS helpfully edited out of O's recent "60 Minutes" interview, that he, Barack Obama, is at least the fourth best American president (out of 44) in history. He said THIS, of his accomplishments in his first two years:
"I would put our legislative and foreign policy accomplishments in our first two years against any President--with the possible exceptions of Johnson, FDR and Lincoln, just in terms of what we've gotten done in modern history."
Yes, he said "POSSIBLE EXCEPTIONS." LET'S SEE: "THE ONE" IS BETTER THAN GEORGE WASHINGTON (setting the new republic's course), THOMAS JEFFERSON (Louisiana Purchase), HARRY TRUMAN (Marshall Plan), RONALD REAGAN (tax reform). Just to name a few. In a perfect counter, Victor Davis Hanson dissects liberal "print the legend" mythology re The One. VDH focuses on four myths propagated about "O": brilliant, healer, reformer, magnanimous. Watch Marco Rubio's recent Senate floor speech (13:51) in which he assails "O" for his zero-sum view. His gem:
“And that is that we have never been: a nation of haves and have-nots. We are a nation of haves and soon-to-haves, of people who have made it and people who will make it. And that’s who we need to remain.”
Yet another angle is to tie Obama to "crony capitalism"--the poster child for 2012 being Jon Corzine, exemplar of the corrupt ties between Wall Street & K Street whilst fleecing Main Street. The GOP should make Corzine 2012's Willie Horton. Horton was the murderer serving a life sentence, who was freed on furlough by 1988 Democratic Presidential nominee Michael Dukakis while he was Mass. governor; Horton then broke into a home, committing assault, armed robbery & rape at the expense of a terrified family. His case was used by Al Gore during the Democratic primary & then powerfully by Bush 41 in the 1988 general election, in hard-hitting negative ads.
There is another revealing Obama character item, one that shows how empty the President's campaign trail promise about a post-racial administration was to prove. The Gray Lady published a front-pager based upon an upcoming book on the First Couple, in which First Lady Michelle Obama had this to say about her fears about pubic perception of her, her family, & their White House life:
Mrs. Obama often found herself caught in an internal debate about how the Obamas should look and live, travel and entertain. As the first African-American first lady, she wanted everything to be flawless and sophisticated; she felt “everyone was waiting for a black woman to make a mistake,” a former aide said.
Far from being subjected to harsher scrutiny than other First Ladies, she was lionized from the very start. Mind you, I give her scads of credit for working so hard to support military families; on that alone she deserves much respect. Now if only she (and her husband, and the Attorney-General, etc.) could recognize that this is a very different country than it was half a century ago....
Ironically, President Obama is capable of genuine eloquence (t/h Bill Kristol), as in his Dec. 14 Fort Bragg remarks to the troops re their noble service, which included this pitch-perfect tribute:
“That’s why you, the 9/11 Generation, has earned your place in history....
“All of you here today have lived through the fires of war. You will be remembered for it. You will be honored for it—always. You have done something profound with your lives. When this nation went to war, you signed up to serve. When times were tough, you kept fighting. When there was no end in sight, you found light in the darkness.
“And years from now, your legacy will endure in the names of your fallen comrades etched on headstones at Arlington, and the quiet memorials across our country; in the whispered words of admiration as you march in parades, and in the freedom of our children and our grandchildren. And in the quiet of night, you will recall that your heart was once touched by fire. You will know that you answered when your country called; you served a cause greater than yourselves; you helped forge a just and lasting peace with Iraq, and among all nations.”
But as Fred Barnes writes, Obama's 2012 re-election strategy will be to run against the central promise of his 2008 campaign: to bridge the partisan divide in Washington. Commentary Blog's Peter Wehner sees "O" as "running a truly postmodern campaign ... [he offers} "no objective truth but simply narrative.... [not] simply distorting the facts [but] inverting them.... The sheer audacity of Obama’s cynicism is a wonder of the modern world."
Bottom Line. The GOP's aces-in-the-hole may be Obama's monumental self-regard, and his cynical, uncivil trash-the-GOP campaign.
Letter from the Capitol, LFTC, Conservative Politics
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