Examination of Three Groups of 2008 Supporters Fading Away
The magic is gone from Barack Obama. He's here, but the glamour has vanished. He still talks, but few people appear to be listening. [/] Sometime in spring, it began to be noticed (by Fred Barnes, among others) that he was losing the power to move people, or shape their opinions. When his agenda began meeting resistance, he gave a series of speeches and resistance grew stronger. The more he explained, the more people disliked what he said he was doing. [/] The base remained loyal, but three other subgroups had become disenchanted. "The thrill is gone," said E.J. Dionne, who seemed at a loss as to where it had gone to. In the interests of clarity, and of diagnosis, let us attempt to explain. [My emphasis]
From a Washington Examiner article, Obama is so last season, more below:
Our revels now are ended. These our actors, / As I foretold you, were all spirits and / Are melted into air, into thin air: / And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, / The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, / The solemn temples, the great globe itself, / Ye all which it inherit, shall dissolve / And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, / Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff / As dreams are made on, and our little life / Is rounded with a sleep. – Shakespeare, The Tempest, 4.1
I report and link. You decide. - BJon
Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God. - Psalms 20:7
More from a Washington Examiner article, Obama is so last season
Barack Obama is so last season [/] By: Noemie Emery, Examiner Columnist [/] December 2, 2009
[…] There was one group that fell for Obama the Moderate, the man who kept his head (or appeared to) in the financial meltdown last autumn, the temperamental conservative who seemed incremental, the one David Brooks would call "Burkean." Unfortunately, the temperamental conservative turned out to be an ideological radical, intent on ramming through on a narrow majority (and against the wishes of most of the country) a massive redo of the health care delivery system, an immense stack of paper that no one has read.
There was a second that fell for Obama the Story, the half-African waif, whose rise to the leadership of a powerful, once-slave-holding nation was the matter of legend, and tears. He was Reaganesque, he was JFK Redux, a figure of glamour and eloquence. [/] But Reagan and Kennedy saw themselves as temporary custodians of a tradition older and bigger than they were, and thought they were lucky to serve it. Obama seems to think he is doing the country a favor by gracing it. [/] Reagan and Kennedy wanted to project and increase American power and influence; Obama wants to walk it back from what he thinks its delusions of consequence. Reagan and Kennedy talked about freedom, which gave their speeches their eloquence. Obama is bored with the subject of freedom (ask Iran and Honduras), and talks of himself. [/] It is a topic that gets stale fairly quickly. In fact, it already has.
Then there's the third group, perhaps the most painful, which is the young voters, who fell for Obama the Fad. "In 2008 the torch really was passed to a new generation of voters," Dionne had said hopefully. A year later, however, the torch has gone missing, or simply slipped out of their hands. [/] Democratic pollster Celinda Lake found "a dramatically lower level of turnout from Obama surge voters," whose lack of interest seemed terminal. "I don't like what any of them are doing in Washington," an ex-voter complained. It was all so confusing, or perhaps so exhausting. "I'm tired of politics," as another one told her. "I need a rest." [/] "Barack Obama ... is now being treated as a new fashion icon," one fashion blog had reported. Anna Wintour held fundraisers for him. Diane von Furstenberg designed a tote in his honor. Donatella Versace dedicated her collection to him, during Fashion Week in Milan. [/] Obama was sold less as a pol than a fashion accessory, which is how the young bought him. It didn't hurt that he looked like the models in catalogs. He was so young and so hip, and so trendy and slender. [/] They bought less his ideas than his aura and ambiance. And what was the problem with that? [/] Well, quite a lot. As any fashionista will tell you, the problem with being this year's "in" fashion is that sooner or later, you're out. [/] Obama now is "so 2008," which might be 1908 to Celinda Lake's voters. They've been there and done that, and want the new model. [/] All presidents fail in some things, and some fail in most things, but Obama is the first to become a true fashion victim. Everyone knows what happens to fashions that go out of style: They get shoved on a rack to the back of the closet, and slide in a heap to the floor. [/] Examiner Columnist Noemie Emery is contributing editor to the Weekly Standard and author of "Great Expectations: The Troubled Lives of Political Families." [My ellipses and emphasis]
