Obama turned out to be masterful at launching new policies but inconsistent at getting them to work. His presidency threatened to fall into a worrisome pattern: the announcement of a lofty goal, the delegation of implementation to second-rank officials, a missed deadline or two, last-minute intervention by the president to rescue the effort from collapse, and, finally, mixed results -- followed by a statement claiming victory.
A valid observation improperly described as inconsistency. McManus is in fact describing a remarkable consistency in Obama's management, or should I say, political style. I can be more succinct: 1. Fake a vision. 2. Create a scapegoat 3. Claim victory.
Its actually not a bad strategy when you consider what Obama has to deal with--a virulently naive electoral base matched with a politically deadlocked country. His own political life depends on maintaining the illusion of his idealism, but his legacy requires a poltiical product necessarily born of compromise.
Obama's performance in his first year should be measured again his own standards, and that's where we are all in for a big surprise--failure, perhaps even epic failure.
Considering the disillusionment of the Left, its hardly controversial to say that he's failed to maintain the illusion of ideological purity. His actions in Afghanistan were a deep disappointment for the left, as were the compromises made on so-called health-care reform. With historical precedent strongly suggesting that a President's most effective time in his first year in office, its also deeply disappointing for his core supporters that he didn't get to more of their agenda items.
The scapegoating of administration and Congressional officials for policy failures seemed to have been working initially, as the President's numbers remaining relatively stable even as public confidence in government plummeted. That seems to have been erased in recent months as Obama's approval ratings have stooped into an alarming dive. He is losing 2-3 points a month, which if the trend holds, will put him in the 30s by late Spring.
Most revealing is the degree to which claims of victory have backfired. There was eye-rolling when administration officials claimed victory out of the climate change disaster in Copenhagen, but Janet Napolitano's "the system worked" comments created outrage and stunned disbelief. This is perhaps the most important indicator of Obama's performance, because when people just flat out call you a liar, you've clearly exhausted all public goodwill. The polls are bearing this out with a strong approval rating of only 24%--getting perilously close to the total population of the extreme left in this country.
Objectively, Obama gets a failing grade.
Aside from the reality that you can't make a first impression twice, Obama's prospects for the rest of his term in office are vanishingly dim when you realize that none of this is a matter of bad luck. This kind of consistency in failure suggest a fatal mixture of arrogance and incompetence (which always seem to be companions...) that can't be remedied by a rousing locker-room speech.
Forgive my schadenfreude at the prospect of the coming political theater--the Night of the Long Knives...
