Patterico's Pontifications

8/17/2009

Obama’s House of Cards

Filed under: Economics,Obama — DRJ @ 3:25 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

In an interview today with Stuart Varney of Fox Business, Doug Schoen, a Democratic pollster for President Bill Clinton, says the economic news looks grim and Americans are starting to blame President Obama:

SCHOEN: It’s fair to say that the stimulus is not working. There’s a good 50-55% that oppose health care reform now as it’s been proposed, though we clearly don’t know the final details. And there’s a sense that the Obama administration is responsible for more and more of the economic uncertainty we’re facing than has ever been attributed to them before.
***
“I’m a moderate Democrat, Stuart, a blue dog. I worked for Bill Clinton but I believe that you find consensus in the middle of the road. The left passionately disagrees with that and believes there’s a moral obligation to have the public option or even single-payer. So the Party is hopelessly divided, the President is trying to keep it together. All the while, the economic news that you’re describing is so very bad, the American people are saying this is hurting us and they’re blaming the President and the Democrats.
***
“… [T]he president wants to get to a point where he can maintain consensus but with the fighting inside the Party and the stridency inside the Democratic left, he has to literally change positions day-to-day to keep his house of cards from falling down.”

Schoen concludes Obama is a great politician and an extraordinary communicator but he is not a decisive leader.

— DRJ

32 Responses to “Obama’s House of Cards”

  1. Schoen is largely correct. His analysis of what is going on inside the party appears to be spot-on. Where I disagree is his evaluation of the President as an extraordinary communciator. He gives a great speech, but off the cuff stumbles as much as the next ordinary person. Witness his comments re: physicians performing unnecessary tonsillectomies and amputations, or his reminding us that the USPS is a dysfunctional money loser, despite its government-granted monopoly. In another administration, these would have been be called “Bushisms”.

    kyle (9d9e73)

  2. Schoen is largely correct. His analysis of what is going on inside the party appears to be spot-on. Where I disagree is his evaluation of the President as an extraordinary communciator. He gives a great speech, but off the cuff stumbles as much as the next ordinary person. Witness his comments re: physicians performing unnecessary tonsillectomies and amputations, or his reminding us that the USPS is a dysfunctional money loser, despite its government-granted monopoly. In another administration, these would have been called “Bushisms”.

    kyle (9d9e73)

  3. Yeah I agree if the last President had said doctors misdiagnose diabetes on purpose so they can amputate feet for money I do believe that might have been put on the front page of a few papers. In the age of Obama not so much.

    Mr. Pink (7841a9)

  4. entropy

    happyfeet (d8cd81)

  5. Alas, the over 14 months to November 2010 is an eon in political time.

    Ira (28a423)

  6. he’s not even an “extraordinary communicator” as listening to any of his un..um..ah..scripted responses to spontaneous questions will reveal.

    he is simply a power hungry amoral empty suit, unfit for any office, let alone the one he occupies currently.

    redc1c4 (fb8750)

  7. Who cannot worship at the feet of a God who proclaims cops racists and brays that doctors will cut off various body parts for a few extra coins?

    Obama is truly a man to believe in.

    Anyone got a golden calf?

    Thomas Jackson (8ffd46)

  8. “… [T]he president wants to get to a point where he can maintain consensus but with the fighting inside the Party and the stridency inside the Democratic left, he has to literally change positions day-to-day to keep his house of cards from falling down.”

    “…change positions day-to-day”? This is presidential?

    He’s reacting, not leading. He’s fumbling, not sure-footed. His inexperience and lack of leadership skill, and his lack of core principles are being highlighted.

    ColoComment (36bbc4)

  9. If you read the lefty blogs (I know, I do it so you don’t have to) you get some support for his concern that Obama will lose the left if he caves on public “option.”

    I don’t know if the progressive House Dems will hold firm, but it’s certainly a more plausible story than “Max Baucus creates compromise bill that Republicans will vote for.” Yet it’s the latter story which gets all the attention. Dem pundits should understand that there’s pretty good chance that absent good public option, there will be no health care bill.

    This came after Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) told CNBC that a health care bill lacking a public option could lose 100 of the 256 votes in the House Democratic caucus. Since House Republicans are likely to balk at any kind of reform, this would be more than enough to kill reform altogether.

    We should be so lucky. Remember that, even without the public option, the bill still has a tax on small business of 8% when we are trying to emerge from a recession.

    Mike K (addb13)

  10. Carter blew it in similar fashion, but this guy is a master blaster. What’s her name wanted black hurricane names…Hurricane Obama. I think Bill has already been played, or I’d have gone alphabetically with Barack.

    If Schoen has extraordinary communicator include lying with smug confidence. Elegant spreading of bullshit. Singular supremacy at double-speak. Remarkable ability to flip from one position to another directly opposing position with blinding speed and bravado. Then I must agree with Danke Schoen, particulary on the extraordinary part. World class, even.

    And I’m not even political. This is personal.

    political agnostic (265483)

  11. Hapyfeet, what I took you to say was the entropy of an isolated system which is not in equilibrium will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium, and that the entropy change dS of a system undergoing any infinitesimal reversible process is given by δq / T, where δq is the heat supplied to the system and T is the absolute temperature of the system.

    All of which means, Obama’s clock is running down, irreversibly.

    Right?

    Fred Z (f7d2b1)

  12. If Obama can get a healthcare bill passed, and it hardly matters what’s in it, Clinton thinks he’ll be able to use that “success” to generate some 2010 voter enthusiasm. If he can’t get a bill, that’s going to make the midterms ugly for Democrats, especially newly elected Democrats. Really ugly. Obama will have to take the blame for losing the majority and that’ll weaken him going into the 2012 cycle.

    To me, that means the House Democrats will come together and cram down a bill on the public. They have to do so, for their own political survival, even if it really angers the public. For all the impact Town Hall protests have had on House members, I hope the Senate is most affected. If Senators begin to fear for their own political fate, that’s good. Optimal, even. We need to focus on the Senate just as much, if not more, than the House.

    MTF (551a4b)

  13. “he is not a decisive leader” I’ll vote “present” on that one.

    I love it! The Dems are damned if they do and damned if they don’t! They either force single payer down our throats and lose big in 2010; or they wimp out on it and lose big in 2010!

    J. Raymond Wright (e8d0ca)

  14. thanks Fred! I, um, didn’t know how to make the symbol thingies … on this computer

    happyfeet (d8cd81)

  15. Had Obama not pushed the stimulus bill or the auto bailout or had he vetoed the bloated Omnibus bill and not have pushed cap and tax, he might have enough people left that believe him to be a fiscal moderate. Under this scenario he might actually have a good shot at passing HCR.

    Now people know he is another big spending Democrat that just wants to get into our pockets.

    MU789 (28ca5f)

  16. I wonder where we would be right now with HCR had Hillary won both the nomination and the election. I also wonder if she is looking hard at 2012 and if Obama can sense her fingernails growing.

    Huey (cbc224)

  17. Obama is a man who has dreamed of power, studied it and analyzed it, strategized to seize it, with all the ardor of a teenage boy in love.

    Now that he has it, he doesn’t know what the hell to do with it.

    Patricia (29a01d)

  18. Patricia, I read this and it complements your statement. Unfortunately and oh, so ironically, people were completely charmed and bedazzled by Obama’s own belief in himself.

    Turns out Barack Obama doesn’t really know very much about anything, a fact that is troubling enough by itself. But when you combine it with his apparent conviction that he should be put in charge of regulating all these things he knows nothing about, and then you add in his talent as a first-rate bullshitter – you end up with the most ignorant guy in the room making the decisions for the rest of us.

    I call bullshit.

    Dana (57e332)

  19. Yeah but his media fellow travelers will spin him to safety, if they are able. Here’s Matthew Yglesias today, “It’s no exaggeration to say that even without a public option, a health-care bill would be the greatest progressive legislative accomplishment in four decades.” Blah, blah, blah Matthew. If you hadn’t heard, comparing ObamaCare to Medicare (as you are presumably doing with that time-line) is comparing it to the big bankrupt nationalized health care system that so desperately needs to be fixed, according to the prez. Revealingly apt, even if ham-handed!

    MTF (551a4b)

  20. What’s her name wanted black hurricane names

    That would be Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee…

    And no, there aren’t two women with that name in Congress.

    Scott Jacobs (d027b8)

  21. I hope Obama can pass Obamacare. Guarantees the Dhimmies will be a minority party for 20 years. Long enough for a constitutional amendment to forbid the government from ever considering an abomination like this again.

    Thomas Jackson (8ffd46)

  22. Comment by Scott Jacobs — 8/17/2009 @ 7:06 pm

    There is a Congresswoman Lee from Oakland CA.

    AD - RtR/OS! (a26a7a)

  23. I don’t care for Obama one bit, but a president has only so much influence on the huge machinery that is the American and, in turn, world’s economy. However, that’s assuming a president doesn’t do something totally off-the-wall (eg, raising taxes by 50%) or fanatical (eg, banning savings accounts, automobiles and fast food).

    When people (certainly of the left) blamed Bush for economic problems going back several years, I thought that was sort of like a bunch of bratty kids blaming daddy (or mommy) for making everyone go to sleep early and not taking anyone out for ice cream.

    But when the huge deficits now being generated by Obama start to impact the economy in the future, and ensuing tax increases triggered by idiotic legislation along the lines of cap-and-trade or nanny-state healthcare, or all the other things fostered by a generally ultra-liberal policymaker and thinker like Obama begin to manifest, then the person in the White House (either of the present or the past) will deserve to take a lot of heat.

    Mark (411533)

  24. Yup, Dana, a BSer he is. And the American people are seeing through it. Finally.

    Patricia (29a01d)

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  26. @4 — entropy

    Great observation, happyfeet!

    Pons Asinorum (20c241)

  27. The stimulus is not working…

    Oh, Yes It Is…in unintended ways:

    Cash-for-clunkers boost Japanese car sales
    By Bernard Simon in Toronto

    Published: August 17 2009 22:45 | Last updated: August 17 2009 22:45

    The US’s cash-for-clunkers scheme, designed to bolster Detroit’s embattled carmakers, is turning out to be an even bigger boon for their Japanese rivals.

    According to data published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Monday, Americans are using the scrappage incentives to buy more vehicles from Toyota than any of the three Detroit carmakers.

    furious (71af32)

  28. furious,

    that’s probably just your normal name on here, but I don’t think there’s anything to be furious about when we buy cars from Honda and Toyota. Those companies actually contribute to the American economy. GM and Chrysler take away from it.

    So I think all those Accords and Highlanders are much more patriotic choices than Impalas and Dakotas. Japan is one of the good nations out there, and I’m always glad to see their companies doing well.

    Juan (bd4b30)

  29. To me, the message here is that a political party, i.e. the GOP, should always remember where it’s bread and butter is.

    Dems have worked hard at their ‘big tent’ thing, resulting in a party with lots of fringes and tenuous commitment. The leftists tried to hijack the party, somewhat successfully, but are alienating the middle and competing fringes, and it’s coming around to bite them.

    Is the GOP learning from this? If conservatives are the bread and butter of the GOP, is it productive in the long run to work so hard to have a big tent that conservatives feel abandoned? The Dems have lost the middle, including some of their base, in 6 months. The GOP tried so hard to get the middle that conservatives are angry – does the GOP realize how many conservatives have lost faith in the party?

    We see here a scenario in which the Dems “won”, due to their big tent, irritation with Bush, and lots of bizarre fairy-tale thinking. How much will they accomplish from here on in? How much tarnishing of their brand will stick for years? What does this say about acting on principle rather than diluting principles to enlarge the tent?

    jodetoad (059c35)

  30. #29

    Jodetoad

    Great observation. But the rank and file do not run the GOP, the Vichyite GOP controls it. In 2012 do you expect to see a conservative running or some hack like Romney, Hickabee or Pawlenty?

    Thomas Jackson (8ffd46)

  31. Where’s the single-payer public option?

    Where are the jobs?

    Where’s the Birth Certificate?

    What the HECK is going on around here?

    Xavier Cugat (9d1bb3)

  32. or some hack like Romney, Hickabee or Pawlenty?

    Ok, not finding Gov. Romney or Gov. Pawlenty to be conservative enough I can understand mostly, but Gov. Huckabee?

    Seriously?!?

    Jesus God man, who the hell would be conservative enough for you?

    Scott Jacobs (d027b8)


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