Tonight, President Obama will unveil his State of the Union.
Said one well connected Democrat last night, “Things are so bad there is a betting pool on which DEMOCRAT screams ‘You Lie!’ tomorrow night.” Well, tomorrow night is now arrived.
This past week, Americans have been treated to two very awkward scenes — Barack Obama speaking to a group of elementary school students with his teleprompter and Barack Obama speaking to his middle class task force with a teleprompter.
The man is extremely scripted. The visuals subject Obama to appropriate ridicule (school kids + teleprompter. Really?!?), but the script he is using is the true punchline for jokes.
For the past year, Barack Obama has called everything he does “unprecedented” and “historic.” His favorite four letter word is “Bush”. A day does not go by without someone in the administration blaming George Bush for all their ills. Counter-intuitively, the Democrats even blamed George Bush for Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts.
Tonight, it will be interesting to see how often he blames George Bush and how often he resorts to stale cliches the public is no longer buying. Obama, his teleprompter, and the rhetoric they deploy have become the butt of late night jokes. When Barack Obama loses Jon Stewart, he is in real trouble.
But there is a greater trouble for Barack Obama and one very few people are discussing. It is, however, the greatest threat to the Obama administration and is not easily reversed. If he cannot turn back from this threat rather soon, no successes with jobs, the economy, or anything else will save him.
The American people have a very American world view. The God of the Bible is real. Mom, the flag, apple pie, and American exceptionalism are the hallmarks of the American world view. A majority of American embrace this world view.
Voters want a guy in office who shares that world view.
But there is a growing sense among independents and even some Democrats that Barack Obama does not share that world view.
Obama’s world apology tour last year, his repeated rhetoric hinting at a world view where the United States is just one of many nations with nothing setting it apart, his mishandling of terror issues, his proclamation that we are not a Christian nation, his belief that we really all can get along, etc. suggest a world view hostile not just to American exceptionalism, but also hostile to the traditions the nation holds sacred.
Conservatives have long thought Barack Obama had a different world view — one shared more by ivory tower elitists and Hollywood liberals hostile to the nation’s roots and traditions, pushed out via the editorial page of the New York Times. Independents and Democrats gave the man a repeated pass. Never mind the hand not over his heart. Never mind the absence of a flag lapel pin. Never mind his misstatements on patriotism. Never mind his wife’s statement about it being the first time she was proud of her country.
Obama was not Bush and independents and Democrats could not imagine electing a guy who did not share their world view. Obama was “one of us,” so to speak. He had to be.
Except he is not. He never was. When voters begin to think and then realize that the President of the United States does not share the prototypical American world view, they will turn on the President.
It does not matter how well a person does in a job, people want to support those they view as their own. When Obama loses the connection with the voters because of his lack of a shared world view, a job well done will not matter.
Perhaps conservatives and the growing ranks of independents and Democrats who are starting to question Obama’s fealty to an American world view are wrong. But Obama has given no evidence yet that the growing impression is wrong. And if he does not act soon to correct the impression he is leaving, no rhetoric and no teleprompter will save him.
This is the first job in his life where a speech is not enough. He must now walk the walk or fall.
Redstate
Said one well connected Democrat last night, “Things are so bad there is a betting pool on which DEMOCRAT screams ‘You Lie!’ tomorrow night.” Well, tomorrow night is now arrived.
This past week, Americans have been treated to two very awkward scenes — Barack Obama speaking to a group of elementary school students with his teleprompter and Barack Obama speaking to his middle class task force with a teleprompter.
The man is extremely scripted. The visuals subject Obama to appropriate ridicule (school kids + teleprompter. Really?!?), but the script he is using is the true punchline for jokes.
For the past year, Barack Obama has called everything he does “unprecedented” and “historic.” His favorite four letter word is “Bush”. A day does not go by without someone in the administration blaming George Bush for all their ills. Counter-intuitively, the Democrats even blamed George Bush for Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts.
Tonight, it will be interesting to see how often he blames George Bush and how often he resorts to stale cliches the public is no longer buying. Obama, his teleprompter, and the rhetoric they deploy have become the butt of late night jokes. When Barack Obama loses Jon Stewart, he is in real trouble.
But there is a greater trouble for Barack Obama and one very few people are discussing. It is, however, the greatest threat to the Obama administration and is not easily reversed. If he cannot turn back from this threat rather soon, no successes with jobs, the economy, or anything else will save him.
The American people have a very American world view. The God of the Bible is real. Mom, the flag, apple pie, and American exceptionalism are the hallmarks of the American world view. A majority of American embrace this world view.
Voters want a guy in office who shares that world view.
But there is a growing sense among independents and even some Democrats that Barack Obama does not share that world view.
Obama’s world apology tour last year, his repeated rhetoric hinting at a world view where the United States is just one of many nations with nothing setting it apart, his mishandling of terror issues, his proclamation that we are not a Christian nation, his belief that we really all can get along, etc. suggest a world view hostile not just to American exceptionalism, but also hostile to the traditions the nation holds sacred.
Conservatives have long thought Barack Obama had a different world view — one shared more by ivory tower elitists and Hollywood liberals hostile to the nation’s roots and traditions, pushed out via the editorial page of the New York Times. Independents and Democrats gave the man a repeated pass. Never mind the hand not over his heart. Never mind the absence of a flag lapel pin. Never mind his misstatements on patriotism. Never mind his wife’s statement about it being the first time she was proud of her country.
Obama was not Bush and independents and Democrats could not imagine electing a guy who did not share their world view. Obama was “one of us,” so to speak. He had to be.
Except he is not. He never was. When voters begin to think and then realize that the President of the United States does not share the prototypical American world view, they will turn on the President.
It does not matter how well a person does in a job, people want to support those they view as their own. When Obama loses the connection with the voters because of his lack of a shared world view, a job well done will not matter.
Perhaps conservatives and the growing ranks of independents and Democrats who are starting to question Obama’s fealty to an American world view are wrong. But Obama has given no evidence yet that the growing impression is wrong. And if he does not act soon to correct the impression he is leaving, no rhetoric and no teleprompter will save him.
This is the first job in his life where a speech is not enough. He must now walk the walk or fall.
Redstate
