Obama fatigue

From John Smart's blog, thinking back to 2008...

That very night I came home and began researching Obama. I was a Democrat and I wanted to know about the man I assumed I’d be voting for. This assumption lasted about 45 minutes. It didn’t take much research to realize Obama was a poser and a fraud. The narrative shoved down our throats by the media about him made it clear soon enough the next President had been ‘chosen’ for us.

Democracy in the U.K. must be incredibly easy: Simply learn which candidate the Murdoch press favors, then vote the other way. Things are slightly more complex in the U.S., but only slightly. When the beltway press corps loves a candidate, that's the person you don't want.

Now the sequel is here. Obama is damaged to say the least. He’s finally below 40% in the latest Gallup poll. He’ll try to revive the dynamic of 2008. He’ll even succeed for a news cycle here and there. But he’s now the lover we are over. We all know those relationships. Attempts to rekindle the flame always fail, and usually just prolong the pain.

It's true about the polls.

New data posted Sunday shows that 39% of Americans approve of Obama's job performance, while 54% disapprove. Both are the worst numbers of his presidency.

Can Obama be re-elected with these numbers? Not easily. At this same point in the Dubya presidency, Bush's approval ratings were above 40 percent and, in most polls, above 50. Even so, Bush had to resort to chicanery to pull off a win in 2004.



Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin, facing a recall effort, has higher approval poll numbers than Obama does.



Smart and other bloggers are betting that the next president will be Rick Perry. Bachmann is nutty and Romney is pure 10W40. Talking Points Memo is all over Perry's remarks about the fed, claiming that looser fed policy would boost the economy and thus help Obama -- hence Perry's attack. Personally, I'm not sure that his stance is all about the horserace: I think this is part of the libertarian goal of destroying America in order to remake it.



That's why we've seen, over the past few years, a calculated media campaign to scare people with the threat of inflation. With so much else wrong, inflation was the least of our worries. Not all inflation equals the Weimar scenario: A limited, controlled inflation could have made our debt (both personal and national) less burdensome. For precisely that reason, the Republicans have been whipping up anti-inflation hysteria.



As you know, I favored the "platinum coin" solution to the debt crisis. Perry wants to make sure that Obama has no such option if (when) the economy tanks further.



Besides, calling Bernanke a traitor deflects attention from Perry's own treasonous embrace of secession. You know Republicans: Their most beloved strategy is to turn a weakness into a strength, as when the Bushies attacked Kerry's war record in 2004.



Perry is just as crazy as Bachmann, but since he is male, the media will take much longer to notice the stench of wackiness.



Obama will probably lose. Let this sink in: Obama will probably lose to a Texas crank who thinks that secession is an option.



We need a Democratic challenger. Even if the challenge does not succeed, an insurgent campaign can serve the larger purpose of remaking the Democratic brand. We need someone who will articulate an alternative to the Obama-as-radical-socialist narrative. We need someone who will tell the public that liberalism has not failed us in this economic crisis; liberalism has not been tried.