Obama’s Fall to Earth

Obama’s Fall to Earth by John Hinderaker/Powerline blog

One of the first magazine articles Scott and I wrote was titled “Dan Quayle For President.” I believe Quayle was the vice-president at the time. The title was somewhat tongue in cheek; the theme of our piece was that conservative presidents may be derided as stupid, but somehow they keep having successful presidencies. Liberal presidents, on the other hand, may be praised as brilliant, but somehow they keep failing. The explanation, of course, is simple: conservative policies work, and liberal policies don’t.

This morning Dr. Milton Wolf made essentially the same point in the Washington Times, in the context of Barack Obama’s presidency:

Remember when liberals claimed Barack Obama was “probably the smartest guy ever to become president” and was “a sort of god”? Today they say “we are watching him turn into Jimmy Carter right before our eyes,” and the center point of his presidency is “a disaster.” So what changed exactly?

What has changed is that the Obama administration has been an abject failure. Dr. Wolf provides a useful brief catalog:

Consider the results thus far of the Obama presidency:


Two million-private sector jobs have been lost.


Unemployment jumped from 7.8 to 9.2 percent with a simply terrible 2011 first-quarter economic growth rate of just 0.4 percent.


A record 1 in 7 Americans is on food stamps.


Gasoline prices more than doubled, from $1.83 to $3.74 per gallon.


National debt increased 35 percent, to $14.5 trillion, or $137,000 for each taxpayer.


National unfunded liabilities increased 47 percent, to $114.9 trillion, or a cool $1 million for each taxpayer (and this does not yet include Obamacare).


America is on the verge of losing its AAA credit rating.

If you are a liberal, there are two ways of looking at this: you can conclude that liberalism is a failed ideology, or that Barack Obama isn’t as smart as you thought. It’s no surprise that most liberals prefer the latter choice:

So, as the liberal presidency of Mr. Obama becomes increasingly indefensible, the liberal is faced with an unthinkable dilemma: acknowledge the fundamental failure of his collectivist liberal philosophy, which tends toward socialism, or blame its failures on a single man whom, until just recently, the liberal deified.

And so we have the current liberal dissatisfaction with President Obama–which, as Dr. Wolf points out, was entirely predictable. You heard it here first: Dan Quayle would have been a better president.

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2011/08/obamas-fall-to-earth.php