By John Ransom
Friday, August 12, 2011
I’ve gotten a chuckle out of the liberal civility war that’s been going on since the debt deal was signed and S&P downgraded U.S. credit ratings. The Bolsheviks are trading salvos with the Mensheviks and hunkering down for the long war.
On the one hand you’ve had some liberals who feel that Obama just “appears” weak; on the other you have some progressives who think that Obama’s been done in by a message problem and lack of conviction more than anything else.
So, today I read Colin Delany’s peacekeeping article on the Huffington Post calling for a truce with some interest. Delany says that argument is about two sides of political operations: messaging and mechanics- by mechanics he’s talking GOTV. He argues that the message hasn’t been the problem, but rather the mechanics.
Delany’s delusional on both his general point and wading into the fray.
Because after all the campaigning and advertising, all the stump speeches and robo-calls, politics still is about the one thing: the truth.
And here’s the truth for you Democrats out there: Your candidate sucks.
No, really. I mean it.
I’m not saying that because I hate Obamacare and cap and trade and unions. I do hate those things, but I’m speaking from the perspective of a political professional with a background in message and mechanics.
Liberals are going to have a very hard time selling the candidate Obama again for the very same reason that they had an easy time selling him the first time around.
In the last presidential election, the country eventually went with the candidate who least reminded them of George W. Bush. This time around, I’m guessing they’ll do the same.
This comparison won’t favor Obama.
Voters will put up with a lot of things. They’ll put up with war that stretches on for five years too long; they’ll put up with a temporary downturn in the economy; they’ll put up with presidents who can’t keep their pants on.
But they won’t put up with a con job.
Don’t misunderstand me: I think George Bush was a good guy and a not bad president. But on the Iraq War, his administration tried to con a lot of people. The Republican Party eventually paid a price for that con job by losing support in 2004, 2006 and ultimately in 2008.
Don’t get me wrong: I supported and still do support American involvement in Iraq, but if the Bush administration put together a strong argument for the war- or even a truthful one- I missed it. My support came through my own reasoning that America would be stronger with 250,000 troops stationed within marching distance of Tehran.
But that doesn’t touch the Bush administration’s real sin, which was their screwing up of the prosecution of the war.
“We had a plan to invade Iraq. One that would have worked,” one retired U.S. general told me shortly after the invasion turned into an occupation. “It was almost as if they purposefully tried to screw it up.”
Willfully for almost six years, the Bush administration stuck to the “other” plan until John McCain forced them, on the back of his presidential aspirations, to try the “surge” strategy that soldiers had been advocating for years.
It worked.
Now, fast forward to today.
If I had a dollar for every time someone has said to me, “You know, it’s almost as if Obama is purposefully trying to screw up the economy,” I’d be a wealthy man.
Very wealthy.
I don’t buy the conspiracy theory that Obama is screwing things up on purpose. But like George Bush, he’s guilty of not being honest with the American people.
But here’s the difference: I think George W. Bush is an honorable man who had a messaging problem and poor execution.
I think Barack Hussein Obama is a liar who also can’t manage the presidency.
Obama campaigned against the debt ceiling increase, higher taxes on anyone making less than $250,000, on war without congressional authorization, on not nationalizing healthcare; he bragged that if he couldn’t get the economy right in three years, he ought to be a one-term-president.
Lie yourself out of these lies, Mr. President. If I were a progressive I’d be pissed off too.
I’m part of the vast right-wing conspiracy and I’m pissed off.
I may not have approved of how George W. Bush was blowing things up, but at least he was blowing up the right things.
So far the only thing Obama can take credit for blowing up is his fragile, incomplete ego.
He has no accomplishments, no legacy, except empty rhetoric and false promises.
On the one thing that could have brought us all together, the honor killing of Osama bin Laden, he acted like such an ass by his “Osama bin Laden’s Still Dead World Tour,” that he fumbled his one legitimate opportunity to prove he could rise to the occasion.
There’s a long time between now and election-day. Obama still has a chance to get reelected because a lot can happen to right an economy gone wrong. Eventually something has to go right, just by sheer happenstance.
But his chances are diminished because he can’t be honest, probably not even with himself.
And for a man like that, there’s not much more to lose besides the presidency.
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