Obama: A time bomb for Democrats

Let's add double-talking to the One's list of strengths

Hatchet
By Lucas Roebuck

In the next two years, President Barack Obama may single-handedly destroy both the Democratic Party and the "progressive" movement in America. Democratic politicians who enjoy their office may be wise to start slowly distancing themselves from him sooner than later.

Oh sure, right now, Obama is enjoying pretty high approval numbers, and his speech Tuesday night may boost them higher. His oratory certainly ranks with the best of presidential speakers - Ronald Reagan comes to mind. And while talk may be cheap, cost of misusing words, especially for the POTUS, is very, very high. Obama has been abusing words. If Obama fails to walk on water like he has promised, the mob will turn on him. It always does.

Obama, as he proved Tuesday, is very adept at a) talking out of both sides of his mouth, b) saying one thing and doing another, and c) promising people they can have their cake and eat it too.

Let's see. Obama wants to cut military spending but increase the number of troops. Obama says he is against big government (snicker) but is proud to have done more to expand government in his first few weeks in office than any other president in history. Obama is going to raise taxes, but not yours. He is going to increase spending in every major social program in America, but cut the deficit. Obama says that his predecessor abused presidential privilege and the state-secret defense, and then his lawyers go and make the same case.

For as much as Obama talked about presidential power abuse by the Bush administration, he has done more to consolidate power under the White House in a few weeks than Bush did during his entire administration. The appointing of White House czars to short circuit traditional congressional oversight of the traditional cabinet-led agencies and departments comes to mind, as does Obama's bringing the census directly under his chief of staff.

Obama talks about transparency in government, and then pre-screens the reporters who will get to ask him questions at press conferences. And so on ...

You can get away with telling people one thing and doing something else for a while. In a good economy, you can get away with it for years. Just ask Bill Clinton. But Clinton's triangulation was Albert Einstein-smart compared to Obama's two-faced Alfred E. Neuman-dumb deceptions. But Obama has neither Clinton's skill or luck.

Some hard-core Obama supporters - like the folks at The New York Times who alternatively fantasize about having an adulterous affair with the president or mix him up with Garry Gasparov - are still holding out hope that Obama has a grand plan. They hope he isn't just keeping everyone distracted with bread and circuses hoping that everything will just come out all right in the end.

Obama may have the smarts to run Harvard Law Review and organize communities, but his opponents' complaints about his inexperience are ringing true. The start of the Obama administration has become the amateur hour that never ends. Obama's campaign was based on a promise that he was the smart guy who could fix the Bush mess. Obama's core supporters (like Bush's core supporters) will never leave him, but its Republicans, moderate Democrats and independents who voted for Obama because they liked his temperate manner and Ivy League style are going to be first in line to string him up if the Bush mess doesn't get fixed.

Obama is not going to get to point back and say, "It's Bush's fault" because he sold himself to America as the W. repair man. Obama didn't inherit the Bush mess. Instead, he embraced it in the Democratic primaries, and bought it by running for and winning the presidency. It's his mess now.

The smart money is already betting against Obama. Wall Street has cast its vote on Obama's plan to resurrect the American economy. (The Dow continues to fall, no matter what the borrow-billions-to-fix-it-plan-de jour is.) Many in the news media are already smelling blood in the water, which as you know attracts sharks. Sen. Robert Byrd, DW.Va., whose ability to politically survive is evidenced by his life journey from being associated with the Klan to becoming a senior Democratic voice in the Senate, is the first major Democrat to challenge the Obama overreach.

More will follow.

Obama's two strategic blunders - trying to be all things to all people, and trying to force change too fast - will cost his party dearly in 2010. Americans, like most people, are less resistant to change if it is administered piecemeal, not crammed down our national throat like a brick through the esophagus. I thought he was smart enough to slow cook the proverbial frog instead of throwing us live into boiling water.

If you don't believe one man's reputation can cut a party down to size, just cast your eyes on Bush.

Lucas Roebuck is a former managing editor for the Northwest Arkansas Times and the Siloam Springs Herald-Leader.