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Obama: The fall
By Charles Krauthammer, Published: May 2
Fate is fickle, power cyclical, and nothing is new under the sun. Especially in
Washington, where after every election the losing party is sagely instructed to
confess sin, rend garments and rethink its principles lest it go the way of the
Whigs. And where the victor is hailed as the new Caesar, facing an open road to
domination.
And where Barack Obama, already naturally inclined to believe his own loftiness,
graciously accepted the kingly crown and proceeded to ride his reelection
success to a crushing victory over the GOP at the fiscal cliff, leaving a
humiliated John Boehner & Co. with nothing but naked tax hikes.
Thus emboldened, Obama turned his inaugural and State of the Union addresses
into a left-wing dream factory, from his declaration of war on global warming
(on a planet where temperatures are the same as 16 years ago and in a country
whose CO2 emissions are at a 20-year low) to the invention of new entitlements
e.g., universal preschool for 5-year-olds for a country already drowning in
debt.
To realize his dreams, Obama sought to fracture and neutralize the congressional
GOP as a prelude to reclaiming the House in 2014. This would enable him to fully
enact his agenda in the final two years of his presidency, usually a time of
lame-duck paralysis. Hail the Obama juggernaut.
Well, that story excuse me, narrative lasted exactly six months. The Big Mo
is gone.
It began with the sequester. Obama never believed the Republicans would call his
bluff and let it go into effect. They did.
Taken by surprise, Obama cried wolf, predicting the end of everything we hold
dear if the sequester was not stopped. It wasn't. Nothing happened.
Highly embarrassed, and determined to indeed make (bad) things happen, the White
House refused Republican offers to give it more discretion in making cuts.
Bureaucrats were instructed to inflict maximum pain from minimal cuts, as
revealed by one memo from the Agriculture Department demanding agency cuts that
the public would feel.
Things began with the near-comical cancellation of White House tours and ended
with not-so-comical airline delays. Obama thought furious passengers would blame
the GOP. But isn't the executive branch in charge of these agencies? Who thinks
that a government spending $3.6 trillion a year can't cut 2 percent without
furloughing air-traffic controllers?
Looking not just incompetent at managing budgets but cynical for deliberately
injuring the public welfare, the administration relented. Congress quickly
passed a bill giving Obama reallocation authority to restore air traffic
control. Having previously threatened to veto any such bill, Obama caved. He
signed.
Not exactly Appomattox, but coming immediately after Obama's spectacular defeat
on gun control, it marked an administration that had lost its "juice," to
paraphrase a charming question at the president's Tuesday news conference.
For Obama, gun control was a political disaster. He invested capital. He went on
a multi-city tour. He paraded grieving relatives. And got nothing. An
assault-weapons ban a similar measure had passed the Congress 20 years ago
lost 60 to 40in a Senate where Democrats control 55 seats. Obama failed even to
get mere background checks.
All this while appearing passive, if not helpless, on the world stage. On Syria,
Obama is nervously trying to erase the WMD red line he had so publicly
established. On Benghazi, he stonewalled accusations that State Department
officials wishing to testify are being blocked.
He is even taking heat for the Boston bombings. Every day brings another
revelation of signals missed beforehand. And his post-bombing pledge to hunt
down those responsible was mocked by the scandalous Mirandizing of Dzhokhar
Tsarnaev, gratuitously shutting down information from the one person who knows
more than anyone about possible still-existent explosives, associates, trainers,
future plans, etc.
Now, the screw will undoubtedly turn again. If immigration reform passes, Obama
will be hailed as the comeback kid, and a new "Obama rising" narrative
proclaimed.
This will overlook the fact that immigration reform has little to do with Obama
and everything to do with GOP panic about the Hispanic vote. In fact, Obama has
been asked by congressional negotiators to stay away, so polarizing a figure has
he become.
Nonetheless, whatever happens, the screw will surely turn again, if only because
of media boredom. But that's the one constant of Washington political life:
There are no straight-line graphs. We live from inflection point to inflection
point.
And we've just experienced one. From king of the world to dead in the water in
six months. Quite a ride.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/obama-the-fall/2013/05/02/6fa564c4-b348-1\
1e2-9a98-4be1688d7d84_print.html
By Charles Krauthammer, Published: May 2
Fate is fickle, power cyclical, and nothing is new under the sun. Especially in
Washington, where after every election the losing party is sagely instructed to
confess sin, rend garments and rethink its principles lest it go the way of the
Whigs. And where the victor is hailed as the new Caesar, facing an open road to
domination.
And where Barack Obama, already naturally inclined to believe his own loftiness,
graciously accepted the kingly crown and proceeded to ride his reelection
success to a crushing victory over the GOP at the fiscal cliff, leaving a
humiliated John Boehner & Co. with nothing but naked tax hikes.
Thus emboldened, Obama turned his inaugural and State of the Union addresses
into a left-wing dream factory, from his declaration of war on global warming
(on a planet where temperatures are the same as 16 years ago and in a country
whose CO2 emissions are at a 20-year low) to the invention of new entitlements
e.g., universal preschool for 5-year-olds for a country already drowning in
debt.
To realize his dreams, Obama sought to fracture and neutralize the congressional
GOP as a prelude to reclaiming the House in 2014. This would enable him to fully
enact his agenda in the final two years of his presidency, usually a time of
lame-duck paralysis. Hail the Obama juggernaut.
Well, that story excuse me, narrative lasted exactly six months. The Big Mo
is gone.
It began with the sequester. Obama never believed the Republicans would call his
bluff and let it go into effect. They did.
Taken by surprise, Obama cried wolf, predicting the end of everything we hold
dear if the sequester was not stopped. It wasn't. Nothing happened.
Highly embarrassed, and determined to indeed make (bad) things happen, the White
House refused Republican offers to give it more discretion in making cuts.
Bureaucrats were instructed to inflict maximum pain from minimal cuts, as
revealed by one memo from the Agriculture Department demanding agency cuts that
the public would feel.
Things began with the near-comical cancellation of White House tours and ended
with not-so-comical airline delays. Obama thought furious passengers would blame
the GOP. But isn't the executive branch in charge of these agencies? Who thinks
that a government spending $3.6 trillion a year can't cut 2 percent without
furloughing air-traffic controllers?
Looking not just incompetent at managing budgets but cynical for deliberately
injuring the public welfare, the administration relented. Congress quickly
passed a bill giving Obama reallocation authority to restore air traffic
control. Having previously threatened to veto any such bill, Obama caved. He
signed.
Not exactly Appomattox, but coming immediately after Obama's spectacular defeat
on gun control, it marked an administration that had lost its "juice," to
paraphrase a charming question at the president's Tuesday news conference.
For Obama, gun control was a political disaster. He invested capital. He went on
a multi-city tour. He paraded grieving relatives. And got nothing. An
assault-weapons ban a similar measure had passed the Congress 20 years ago
lost 60 to 40in a Senate where Democrats control 55 seats. Obama failed even to
get mere background checks.
All this while appearing passive, if not helpless, on the world stage. On Syria,
Obama is nervously trying to erase the WMD red line he had so publicly
established. On Benghazi, he stonewalled accusations that State Department
officials wishing to testify are being blocked.
He is even taking heat for the Boston bombings. Every day brings another
revelation of signals missed beforehand. And his post-bombing pledge to hunt
down those responsible was mocked by the scandalous Mirandizing of Dzhokhar
Tsarnaev, gratuitously shutting down information from the one person who knows
more than anyone about possible still-existent explosives, associates, trainers,
future plans, etc.
Now, the screw will undoubtedly turn again. If immigration reform passes, Obama
will be hailed as the comeback kid, and a new "Obama rising" narrative
proclaimed.
This will overlook the fact that immigration reform has little to do with Obama
and everything to do with GOP panic about the Hispanic vote. In fact, Obama has
been asked by congressional negotiators to stay away, so polarizing a figure has
he become.
Nonetheless, whatever happens, the screw will surely turn again, if only because
of media boredom. But that's the one constant of Washington political life:
There are no straight-line graphs. We live from inflection point to inflection
point.
And we've just experienced one. From king of the world to dead in the water in
six months. Quite a ride.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/obama-the-fall/2013/05/02/6fa564c4-b348-1\
1e2-9a98-4be1688d7d84_print.html
