Friday, November 20, 2009

What The Firing Of WH Counsel Greg Craig Tells Us About Obama

I'm not sure that I agree with all of the conclusions drawn by Elizabeth Drew in this Politico articleBut she does raise some interesting questions:

"President Barack Obama is returning from his trek to Asia Thursday to a capital that is a considerably more dangerous place for him than when he departed.
 
While he was abroad, there was a palpable sense at home of something gone wrong. A critical mass of influential people who once held big hopes for his presidency began to wonder whether they had misjudged the man. Most significant, these doubters now find themselves with a new reluctance to defend Obama at a phase of his presidency when he needs defenders more urgently than ever. [Emphasis added].

The Craig embarrassment gives these people a new reason – not the first or only reason – to conclude that he wasn’t the person of integrity and even classiness they had thought, and, more fundamentally, that his ability to move people and actually lead a fractured and troubled country (the reason many preferred him over Hillary Clinton) is not what had been promised in the campaign." [Emphasis added].

Drew concludes:

"Maybe there’ll be enough examples of grace that will make people forget this period of pettiness. He’s been lucky before; maybe he’ll get lucky again. Meanwhile, serious people who had a lot of hope about him and who defended him are more worried than ever, and in this if anything over-communicative society the White House can’t write them off as “a bunch of Washington insiders.” So meanwhile, there’s a palpable mood change in Washington that could signify that Barack Obama is in deeper trouble than he was even a week ago."

You don't have to fully agree with this article to observe that a tipping point - that critical mass mentioned above - may in fact have been reached. It is not too late for Obama to turn it around but it will only get more difficult with each passing day.  Obama's shine is off; he has feet of clay.  He is, in the end, a typical and ordinary Chicago pol - and not "The One" we have been waiting for.

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