Stephanie
Diamond Member
- Jul 11, 2004
- 70,230
- 10,864
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SNIP:
President Obama continues to live in a state of denial regarding the message of the midterm elections. He stubbornly clings to the belief that his policies had nothing to do with the historic "shellacking" the voters gave his party and instead blames the red tide on his lack of communications skills. What a change from the 2008 campaign, when Mr. Obama was being heralded as the great orator of the 21st century. Apparently, the 2010 election was lost because Mr. Obama didn't have enough teleprompters.
"I think that over the course of two years, we were so busy and so focused on getting a bunch of stuff done that we stopped paying attention to the fact that leadership isn't just legislation," Mr. Obama told Steve Kroft in a "60 Minutes" interview. "That it's a matter of persuading people. And giving them confidence and bringing them together. And setting a tone." The president is only now realizing that it's not a textbook example of effective executive leadership to ram through unpopular legislation while mocking those who try to point out the negative consequences of his ill-advised actions. He did set a tone, but it was one of arrogance, condescension and recklessness.
This is quite an awakening for the most polarizing president in recent history, but he still doesn't get it. Exit polling showed that voters had genuine objections to his legislative and policy agenda. The federal takeover of health care, unprecedented accumulation of debt, failed economic policies and massive expansion of government all weighed on voters' minds. Those messages were coming through loud and clear.
The "communications gap" argument first turned up in January, when Mr. Obama was struggling to find a way to explain Massachusetts Republican Sen. Scott Brown's come-from-nowhere victory, which handed liberal Ted Kennedy's seat to the GOP. Back then, the White House claimed it hadn't reached out enough to the American people, and it sought input from 2008 campaign manager David Plouffe in its damage-control efforts. Mr. Plouffe recently showed that the audacity of hope was alive and well when he said that signs of GOP momentum going into the midterm election "certainly don't suggest that Republicans are on the precipice of some big electoral wave." Mr. Plouffe is expected soon to replace White House senior adviser David Axelrod, which should be good news for Republicans.
read the rest here.
EDITORIAL: Obama: Send more teleprompters - Washington Times