the new republic, venerable voice of elite liberal analysis since woodrow wilson:
Watching President Obama give his nomination speech last night, it occurred to me for the first time that he might actually lose.
Rereading the speech this morning, I find that it wasn’t as bad as it sounded. It lacked poetry, but it managed a reasonable balance between acknowledging that the economy stinks, asserting that we’re on the right track, and pointing out that the Romney presidency would make things worse for everyone but the rich. But the speech still possessed several glaring faults.
TNR: Obama's Effortful Humblebrag and Uninspiring Speech
obama avoided the topic of health care, for example, his signature achievement
the lugubrious libs at walter lippmann's monthly wanted to see ahab-obama brag on it the way julian castro, son of la raza rosie, did---7 presidents tried, 7 presidents failed
dodd-frank---ditto, denied
timothy noah craves franklin deficit roosevelt, a little reassurance that "everything is going to be fine"
gonna be?
unless you work for govt, it already is
Obama: "The Private Sector Is Doing Fine" | RealClearPolitics
where ya been?
instead, the lib laments, everything is so difficult
obama---i won't pretend it's gonna be easy, i never have, you didn't elect me to tell you what you wanna hear, but the truth instead...
and the truth is---it's gonna be hard, it's gonna be long
"we're dangerously close to jimmy carter territory here," observes the opus
we wince at the lincoln-on-his-knees imagery
"just because our greatest president was a bit depressive, that doesn’t mean we want the present one to lacerate himself over his failures, and we certainly don’t want to hear him tell us about it"
"the mention of fdr only served to remind us of how different, temperamentally, obama is from the happy warrior"
an irritating combination of bill clinton's "era of big govt is over" and jimmy carter malaise
we need a president who can cheer US up, not one whom we need to cheer HIM up
we chafe at obama's attempt to lay the
credit at our feet
obamacare, yes, we're proud
gay marriage, great
but don't try to lay at OUR feet the responsibility for middle class incomes being down 5%, for more than half of the few jobs created coming from the poorest paying sectors
and we bristle at any association of being responsible for "obama's own subdued state of mind"
he can't afford to "outsource his optimism"
Years ago, I took my daughter Alice to see a rope-tricks demonstration. The guy who did it was very good. But he came very near to spoiling it by telling us, as he performed the tricks, how very difficult they were. It was like hearing Fred Astaire say that his feet were killing him. I later explained to Alice that part of doing something well should be disguising, or at least minimizing, how difficult it is. Obama’s speech reminded me of that rope-trick guy. Don’t tell me how hard it is. I already know that. Make me feel that you have the confidence to get it done, and make that confidence contagious. That’s what Obama’s having trouble doing, and if he doesn’t get better at it soon the results could be catastrophic for him and for the entire country.
do you disagree?