At least until January 2017 when she has to see the day her nemesis, Hillary Clinton is sworn in as POTUS.
That was my first reaction to Maureen Dowd's piece on President Obama this morning. Nothing to do with the piece, just my first thought whenever I think of Maureen Dowd-which I mostly avoid doing overly much.
She has some observations on Obama.
"BARACK OBAMA is tangoing into history, and there’s something perfect about that."
"The tango has been described as vertical solitude. And this president is all about vertical solitude."
"Republicans are frothing and comics are tweaking about the baseball diplomacy in Cuba and the tango diplomacy in Argentina, juxtaposed with the terrorist attack and manhunt in Brussels."
"Barack Obama started off as a man self-consciously alone on stage and that’s how he is exiting. He is, for better and worse, too cool for school. His identity is defined by his desire to rise above the fray. Unfortunately, he is in politics, which is the fray."
This is why I am going to be interested to see the effect of Hillary's Administration following his own. The one thing she understands is the fray.
Hey Maureen: can I sit with you at the Inauguration? I'm paying.
"Obama shot to prominence at the 2004 Democratic National Convention with a rousing speech about boldly moving past our barriers — red and blue, black and white. But those divisions are more pronounced than ever. So now he brings people together and gets things done when he can, like importing modernity to Cuba and inveigling China on climate change."
"The president has a bristling resistance to what he sees as cheap emotion. (See: flag pin, 2008.) That has led him, time after time, to respond belatedly or bloodlessly in moments when Americans are alarmed, wanting solace and solutions."
"The Christmas bomber; the BP oil spill; James Foley beheaded by ISIS, the Paris attacks, the San Bernardino attacks, and now Brussels, which he discussed rationally and briefly with ESPN at the baseball game, wearing cool $485 Oliver Peoples sunglasses beside a cool Derek Jeter."
"He feels that fanatics who are not an existential threat to us want to disrupt our lives and we should not let them; that more people die slipping in their bathtubs than in terrorist attacks."
That anthropological detachment — the failure to viscerally connect and vigorously persuade, the lip-curling at needy lawmakers, jittery Americans or anyone else who does not see things as he does — may keep him from being a Mount Rushmore president."
"Obama went to a baseball game with Raúl Castro just 15 months into their working relationship. It took him six years, with his trade bill — one of his top foreign policy initiatives — on the line, to go to the congressional baseball game, toting some White House home brew."
"If he were up for re-election, the president probably would have forced himself to appear more emotionally responsive to the terrorist attacks, urged on by his staff."
"But he clearly feels liberated in the homestretch, relishing what he can do alone, venting privately about world leaders, lawmakers and pundits who have not risen to his lofty standards. Once he read about F.D.R.’s legislative prowess. Lately, he has been buffing up on Teddy Roosevelt blowing a raspberry at Congress and expanding executive power."
"He was a long way from 2008, when a Fox TV channel in Houston blew up a story about an Obama volunteer who had the unpatriotic temerity to have a Cuban flag with a picture of Che at her desk."
"Conservatives then were trying to smear Obama as a socialist. Now many Democratic voters, especially young ones, are disappointed that Obama wasn’t liberal enough and are gravitating toward a real socialist rather than the president’s preferred successor."
There is some irony here that while Obama was smeared by the Right as a socialist for years with the emoprogs mad he never was a socialist. But don't gloat Ms. Dowd. There aren't enough to stop Hillary from being the next POTUS. I wonder what Dowd thinks her chances are for making Mt. Rushmore?
Again, I'm buying, Maureen.
That was my first reaction to Maureen Dowd's piece on President Obama this morning. Nothing to do with the piece, just my first thought whenever I think of Maureen Dowd-which I mostly avoid doing overly much.
She has some observations on Obama.
"BARACK OBAMA is tangoing into history, and there’s something perfect about that."
"The tango has been described as vertical solitude. And this president is all about vertical solitude."
"Republicans are frothing and comics are tweaking about the baseball diplomacy in Cuba and the tango diplomacy in Argentina, juxtaposed with the terrorist attack and manhunt in Brussels."
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/27/opinion/sunday/obamas-last-tango.html?ref=opinion&_r=0
It is amazing, though, how popular President Obama is again. A new Gallup poll has him now a plus 9 in his approval rating.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president_obama_job_approval-1044.html
A 53 percent approval rating in this day and age of partisan warfare is like a 73 percent approval rating 20 years ago. Why is this? Even some conservatives like Scott Sumner, Dave Henderson, and David Brooks are praising him now.
http://lastmenandovermen.blogspot.com/2016/03/why-president-obama-is-so-popular-now.html
It's simple, you don't appreciate what you've got until it's gone. With the Trumpian primary, it's now clear how much worse the country could do.
Back to Maureen Dowd:
This is why I am going to be interested to see the effect of Hillary's Administration following his own. The one thing she understands is the fray.
Hey Maureen: can I sit with you at the Inauguration? I'm paying.
"Obama shot to prominence at the 2004 Democratic National Convention with a rousing speech about boldly moving past our barriers — red and blue, black and white. But those divisions are more pronounced than ever. So now he brings people together and gets things done when he can, like importing modernity to Cuba and inveigling China on climate change."
"The president has a bristling resistance to what he sees as cheap emotion. (See: flag pin, 2008.) That has led him, time after time, to respond belatedly or bloodlessly in moments when Americans are alarmed, wanting solace and solutions."
"The Christmas bomber; the BP oil spill; James Foley beheaded by ISIS, the Paris attacks, the San Bernardino attacks, and now Brussels, which he discussed rationally and briefly with ESPN at the baseball game, wearing cool $485 Oliver Peoples sunglasses beside a cool Derek Jeter."
"He feels that fanatics who are not an existential threat to us want to disrupt our lives and we should not let them; that more people die slipping in their bathtubs than in terrorist attacks."
That anthropological detachment — the failure to viscerally connect and vigorously persuade, the lip-curling at needy lawmakers, jittery Americans or anyone else who does not see things as he does — may keep him from being a Mount Rushmore president."
I'm not so sure he won't be on Mt. Rushmore. Certainly he will if I have anything to do with it.
He is right of course about the slipping in the bath tub and that the terrorists do want to disrupt our way of life. I find Obama welcome after the endless saber rattling of the Bush years.
But it's true that the theatrical side of politics has never been Obama''s thing. Again, this may be the side of him that Hillary will be able to round out when she takes the baton from him in 2017. She is able to talk about terrorism more in the way that many seem to want to hear.
I get why Obama is frustrated about the need for theatrics-after all, he again proved he knows what he's doing by taking out the number two ISIS leader in Syria days after Brussels. But the theatrical side has always dogged him.
In 2012, the reason he lost that first debate to Romney was his impatience with the need to perform.
I mean what was interesting about that debate is that while everyone said he got smoked by Romney there was not a single substantive point you can really point at and say Obama messed up. He wasn't beaten substantively, but he gave a poor performance in the opinions of most who watched it.
"If he were up for re-election, the president probably would have forced himself to appear more emotionally responsive to the terrorist attacks, urged on by his staff."
"But he clearly feels liberated in the homestretch, relishing what he can do alone, venting privately about world leaders, lawmakers and pundits who have not risen to his lofty standards. Once he read about F.D.R.’s legislative prowess. Lately, he has been buffing up on Teddy Roosevelt blowing a raspberry at Congress and expanding executive power."
What if Obama could run for a third term? Matt Yglesias recently wrote a post that claimed that Obama would win in a landslide if he ran today while Hillary is a 'weak candidate.'
I do think Obama could win again, and I agree with Yglesias there is no good reason for the two term limit other than the GOP was afraid of another FDR in 1948.
Still, remember that American politics are a strange thing. You are always a lot more popular when you aren't running for anything anymore. In part Obama is more popular again as he's what he always wants to be: a nonpartisan figure.
We hear now that Hillary is a 'flawed candidate.' This is very shortsighted. It's true her personal approval ratings are upside down with her stuck around 40 percent give or take a few points. Not where you want to be.
But in 2011 and 2012, during Obama's reelection she was at the zenith of her own personal approval at 63 percent. Then even most Republicans approved of her. Then she again put her hat in the partisan ring.
Back then many argued that Obama should drop Joe Biden for her. Last year we heard the opposite: Hillary is a flawed candidate who should get out for Joe Biden. No one was calling him a gaffe machine anymore.
Last Maureen Dowd quote:
"Conservatives then were trying to smear Obama as a socialist. Now many Democratic voters, especially young ones, are disappointed that Obama wasn’t liberal enough and are gravitating toward a real socialist rather than the president’s preferred successor."
There is some irony here that while Obama was smeared by the Right as a socialist for years with the emoprogs mad he never was a socialist. But don't gloat Ms. Dowd. There aren't enough to stop Hillary from being the next POTUS. I wonder what Dowd thinks her chances are for making Mt. Rushmore?
Again, I'm buying, Maureen.
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