Old Ideas In A New Package

Why Obama is losing support — it’s the arrogance and condescension, stupid:

By now it should be clear that the only new idea Obama introduced into American politics was the idea of Obama: Obama the voice of a new generation, Obama the brilliant technocrat, Obama the postracial leader.

The reality of Obama has been quite the opposite. The fresh-faced young leader has governed according to stale old ideas. The dazzling intellect has proved inadequate to basic managerial challenges. We haven’t even been able to enjoy the achievement of having elected a black president, because so many of Obama’s supporters (though not Obama himself, to his credit) won’t shut up about how every criticism of the president and his policies is “racist.”

Yet in America’s current predicament, there is ample reason for optimism. We’d like to think that the failure of Obama’s policies will discredit the bad economic ideas on which they’re based, that his incompetence will discredit the notion that the cognitive elite should run the lives of everyone else, and that the phony charges of racism will discredit the long-outdated assumption of white guilt, at last bringing America close to the ideal of a colorblind society.

I’m less optimistic. There’s a reason that the left’s ideas are the oldest ones in the world — they have a superficial appeal to people who don’t give them much thought, and so we have to suffer repeatedly from their failed social experiments, and relearn the lessons every few generations.

[Update a few minutes later]

When you’ve lost Shephard Fairey…well, I’m not sure who you’ve lost, but he has. On the other hand, he seems to remain in denial:

“To say I feel disappointment is within the context that I know he’s very intelligent, very capable, very compassionate,” Fairey said. “I think he has the tools, and he does not trust his instincts in how to apply them.”

What a fool. And a tool.

[Update a while later]

An Obama primary challenge?

Its always bad political juju to have a primary challenge against an unpopular incumbent, particularly when the unpopularity is as a result of policies, but it would be particularly disastrous for the Donkeys in 2012, because the blacks would probably stay home in the fall if he were defeated in the primary.

7 thoughts on “Old Ideas In A New Package”

  1. Well I disagree with Shepard Fairey because I think The One knows exactly what he’s doing and why:

    that 30 billion small business loan package…you take a loan from there and guess what? You are now required to do things the government’s way. Just like Government Motors. The Feds would own you. Businesses should avoid those loans like the plague.

  2. Obama hasn’t lost any more support than Clinton and Reagan did over the equivalent parts of their presidencies. Absent foreign policy catastrophes and/or triumphs, presidential approval is a function of the economy. If anything Obama is more popular than the economy would predict.

  3. Obama hasn’t lost any more support than Clinton and Reagan did over the equivalent parts of their presidencies. Absent foreign policy catastrophes and/or triumphs, presidential approval is a function of the economy. If anything Obama is more popular than the economy would predict.

    Ok, let’s see the cards you got. What’s your evidence?

  4. Jim, I’d be careful in taking solace with raw poll numbers. Of the people I know who voted for Obama (the majority of my friends and acquaintances), very few still support him.

    The remaining supporters are 100% in pre-election mode. They think he walks on water.

    Those who voted for him, but no longer support him, to a person wish they could take back their vote. They may not disagree with everything he has done (even I don’t), but they fundamentally disagree with most of it. One apolitical friend from whom I’ve never heard a negative word about anyone, and who was looking forward to Obama doing some positive things in his administration, recently characterized him as “a monster,” and someone who must be removed from office in 2012 or sooner.

    That’s the mainstream stuff, the view from Main Street. I work in Washington DC, and most of my friends and acquaintances work for the federal government. The people there who personally support Obama don’t mention it even in private conversations, unless it is with one of their own. Everyone else I know is pretty open about the fact that he and his policies are just plain wrong. And many of those people are Democrats.

    Independents don’t just think he’s wrong, they think he’s evil. Democrats who think he’s wrong (in my experience) think he is against individual freedom. The faithful simply don’t think. They just rationalize.

    On the other hand, I caution Obama opponents from complacency. Zealots (which is all he has left) can do wonders….

  5. As I predicted:

    NEW YORK (AP) – President Barack Obama’s $30 billion small community business lending program faces one big challenge: many of the community banks and businesses it’s supposed to help don’t want it……………..

    Bank executives say their customers don’t want loans, even at low interest rates, because the sluggish economy has chilled expansion plans. Some say the federal money isn’t worth it because they fear it will come with too much regulatory oversight.

    “We have taken a strategic decision not to have our primary regulator, the government, also be a partner in our bank,” said William Chase Jr., CEO of Triumph Bank in Memphis………….

    And then there’s concerns that the government money will have strings attached.

    The fears stem from what happened under TARP, the Troubled Asset Relief Fund, formed at the height of the financial meltdown to pump money into banks. Banks that accepted TARP money had to later cut dividends to shareholders and limit compensation to top executives. They were also penalized for early repayment.

    In this new legislation, the government is taking steps to avoid the tarnish that accompanied TARP. The key part of this effort: Banks can return the money without penalty if rules governing the small business loans change.

    But Chase, the bank CEO in Memphis, isn’t convinced.

    “The rules can be changed any time,” said Chase.

  6. Jim, I’d be careful in taking solace with raw poll numbers. Of the people I know who voted for Obama (the majority of my friends and acquaintances), very few still support him.

    So we should disregard data in favor of anecdotes?

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