Losing Hope in Obama?

Bob Herbert, a devoted leftist NY Times columnist, feels betrayal:

Only an idiot would think or hope that a politician going through the crucible of a presidential campaign could hold fast to every position, steer clear of the stumbling blocks of nuance and never make a mistake. But Barack Obama went out of his way to create the impression that he was a new kind of political leader — more honest, less cynical and less relentlessly calculating than most.
You would be able to listen to him without worrying about what the meaning of “is” is.

Unfortunately there must be a lot of idiots out there, because many have yet to see through the lies from his forked tounge.

But Senator Obama is not just tacking gently toward the center. He’s lurching right when it suits him, and he’s zigging with the kind of reckless abandon that’s guaranteed to cause disillusion, if not whiplash. … He seems to believe that his shifts and twists and clever panders — as opposed to bold, principled leadership on important matters — will entice large numbers of independent and conservative voters to climb off the fence and run into his yard.

Ed Morrissey has some good commentary on this, but Jon Henke nails it:

The fundamental problem is not the character of the politicians, but the nature of the system. We have an electoral and political system that incentivizes bad behavior from politicians. Barack Obama is not immune to this political culture.

The fundamental question that the Right needs to address is how to fix (or ameliorate) the perverse incentives in our political culture. Esoteric and subjective questions about which candidate is the “better man” do not, ultimately, help us to resolve the underlying problem.

Meanwhile, Barack Obama is just playing Hope-A-Dope with the electorate, promising a shiny new leader to replace the soiled leaders of the past. Unfortunately, he doesn’t appear to be doing much about the muck in which they all fight.

Indeed, the bloom is off Obama’s rose. Yet for every flip there must be a flop, and so the disingenuous excuses begin.

Comments are closed.