And Right Off The Rails

Victor Davis Hanson is seeing signs of a complete meltdown coming for Barack Obama. This is very harsh:

First, there were the sermons on ethics, belied by the appointments of tax dodgers, crass lobbyists, and wheeler-dealers like Richardson—with the relish of the Blago tapes still to come. (And why does Richardson/Daschle go, but not Geithner?).

Second, was the “stimulus” (the euphemism for “borrow/print money”) that was simply a way to go into debt for a generation to shower Democratic constituencies with cash.

Then third, there were the inflated lectures on historic foreign policy to be made by the clumsy political novice who trashed his own country and his predecessor in the most ungracious manner overseas to a censored Saudi-run press organ (e.g., Bush is dictatorial, the Saudi king is courageous; Obama can mend bridges that America broke to aggrieved Muslims—apparently Tehran hostages, Rushdie, serial attacks in the 1990s, 9/11, Madrid, London never apparently occurred; and neither did feeding Somalis, saving Kuwait, protesting Chechnya, Bosnia/Kosovo, billions to Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinians, help in two Afghan wars, and on and on).

There is much more, please read the whole thing. I dunno if Obama will melt down, implode or just peter out like Carter did – only faster. But I suspect Obama is in real trouble. His arrogance is starting to wear on people. Soon, even the media will get tired of trying to carry water for him.

More Harm Than Good

Whoops. It seems that the American public – bless them – have figured out that Congressional Democrats do not have their best interests at heart. More people oppose the “stimulus” plan than back it (43% to 37%) – and fully one half say that the plan would do more harm than good. Best of all, support is declining very, very rapidly as more and more details leak out about what foolishness the Congress is trying to pass off as stimulating.

Two weeks ago, 45% supported the plan. Last week, 42% supported it. (Ed Note and now at 37%!)

Opposition has grown from 34% two weeks ago to 39% last week and 43% today.

Sixty-four percent (64%) of Democrats still support the plan. That figure is down from 74% a week ago. Just 13% of Republicans and 27% of those not affiliated with either major party agree.

Seventy-two percent (72%) of Republicans oppose the plan along with 50% of unaffiliated voters and 16% of Democrats.

Related survey data shows that half the nation’s voters say the plan that finally emerges from Congress may end up doing more harm than good.

At this rate, by the time Congress votes on this mess, nobody but Congress will be supporting it. Frankly, I suspect voters are getting a bit tired of hearing that passing out condoms and paying even more for bad art are going to make America boom again. The downright stupid plan rammed through the House by Nancy Pelosi – with no Republican support, or input – is doing serious damage to the Democrats as a party and to Barack Obama personally. In fact, between the spendaholic frenzy of Pelosi and company and the debacle of the double standard that applies to Obama’s political picks, as opposed to regular folks, Obama is really taking some serious political lumps.

I had a lot of faith that the Democrats would overreach badly as they so often do. But I had no idea they would be this spectacularly successful at failure this soon!

That New Car Administration Smell

As anyone who has bought a car knows, the minute you turn the key and drive it off the lot, the depreciation begins. So it is with the bright, shiny Obama administration. All of a sudden, it doesn’t look so bright and shiny. Toby Harnden explains:

What a difference an election makes. On the campaign trail, candidate Barack Obama vowed to fix Washington’s “broken politics”, which had become “gummed up by money and influence”. In the age of Obama, he promised, government would no longer be “a tool to enrich friends and high-priced lobbyists”. The stakes were too high to play the “same old Washington games with the same old Washington players”. The slogan was: “Change you can believe in.”

Now that he is in office, however, the new dawn is looking like a false one. His administration is crammed to the gills with alumni of Bill Clinton’s White House; Hillary Clinton, whom Obama mocked as the epitome of what was wrong with politics, is now secretary of state.

There have been attempts to give lobbyists top jobs in the Obama administration. Tom Daschle, a former senator and the personification of the slick operator richly rewarded for his influence-peddling, was nominated as health secretary. As with two other Obama nominees, it subsequently emerged that he had failed to pay all his taxes, and yesterday he was forced to withdraw his name from consideration.

It is still very early on in the Obama presidency, yet Obama is already having to defend what looks an awful lot like a double standard. His nominees are given slack on things that would destroy an average American. The abrupt withdrawal of Tom Daschle saved Obama from some additional heat, but a lot of damage was already done.

That new administration smell is beginning to whiff of corruption already.