Dick Morris is a pretty good political prognosticator, and I thought his take on the wide gap between Obama’s policies and policies favored by the majority of Americans coupled with the two or three years of recession we have in store, will make him very unpopular before long. Because of the country’s demographics, I think he’ll be a short-lived and oversold commodity, the national equivalent of a weak leaders perceived to be in the backpocket of pushy interest groups on the local level, like his hero Harold Washington or David Dinkens:
So if voters differ so fundamentally with the president on the very essence of his program, why do they accord him high ratings? They are like the recently married bride who took her vows 100 days ago. It would be a disaster for her life if she decides that she really doesn’t like her husband. But she keeps noticing things about him that she can’t stand. It will be a while before she walks out the door or even comes to terms with her own doubts, but it is probably inevitable that she will.
For Americans to conclude that they disapprove of their president in the midst of an earth-shaking crisis is very difficult. But as Obama’s daily line moves from “I inherited this mess” to “There are faint signs of light,” the clock starts ticking. If there is no recovery for the next six months – and I don’t think there will be – Obama will inevitably become part of the problem, not part of the solution.
And then will come his heavy lifting. He has yet to raise taxes, regiment healthcare or provide amnesty for illegal immigrants. He hasn’t closed down the car companies he now runs and he has not yet forced a 50 percent hike in utility bills with his cap-and-trade legislation. These are all the goodies he has in store for us all.
I would add that any major national security failure or terrorist attack will instantly remind voters that Bush, for all his faults, made security a priority and prevented such disasters after 9/11, while Obama has been far more concerned with procedural regularities, impressing our largely invulnerable friends in Europe, and obscuring the nature and magnitude of the threat.
Subscribe To This Feed
So what if the economy makes a modest recovery, and the terrorists use this time to recoup after the damage they suffered the last eight years?
Doesn’t that turn all this on its head? Doesn’t it make it more likely that an America that is already moving towards embracing many of Obama positions will be even more ready to accept them?
Private enterprise has just finished a massive restructuring and cutting of fat, it’s likely to bounce back a bit. Much of the money we’ve borrowed for the bailouts and stimulus has been borrowed at near zero interest rates. It’s quite possible, even likely, that for the next couple years we are going to have a somewhat decent level of economic growth. And Obama will get the credit. We’ll all pay later for everything he’s going to give us, in higher taxes, inflation, and social disorder, but we’ll be stuck with it all, until it eventually all collapses sometime in the hopefully distant future.
And keep in mind, that things don’t have to get much better to seem tremendously better than the funk we’ve been in the last 2 or 3 years. Again, Obama’s going to get almost all the credit.