John Cole coined the
"Black Jimmy Carter" meme some time ago, and it's now
starting to get some real Village traction here as we come up on the
Already Failed Obama Presidency, Year Two. Today's contestant, Jackie Calmes of the NY Times with the headline:
Obama Tries to Turn Focus to Jobs, if Other Events Allow
If "other events allow". Obama doesn't even have control over his own destiny, his own Presidency, his own country, nothing. He's just fecklessly rolling on the storm-tossed waves now.
The employment situation is only the most visible of the economic policy challenges that Mr. Obama faces.
His push to overhaul financial regulation is bogged down on Capitol Hill. The housing market is still weak and his programs to help homeowners have had little impact. The Federal Reserve is under pressure from inflation hawks to begin tightening policy, while deficit hawks are demanding that government spending be restrained — even as some economists say more stimulus is needed to avert prolonged economic sluggishness or even another recession.
But the measures by which voters are most likely to judge his success are the unemployment rate and the pace of job creation. So after an inaugural year in which Mr. Obama was absorbed in the overhaul of the health care insurance system and by a prolonged internal debate over a military buildup in Afghanistan, the White House has been trying to orchestrate a shift to showcase Mr. Obama as concerned and focused on doing everything within his power to create jobs.
But the employment report for December, which showed further job losses instead of the hoped-for gains, suggested that time might be running out for Democrats to show significant progress before voters start making up their minds — say, by summer.
Meanwhile, the world keeps intruding as Mr. Obama tries to execute his promised pivot.
Besides, the Republicans run the country, didn't you know?
“It’s time,” said Michael Steele, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, that Mr. Obama “finally do what he should have been doing over the past year — put his full and undivided attention on fixing our economy.”
At the same time, he and other Republican leaders suggest that Democrats are doing too much in the way of government intervention in the economy. Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the House Republican leader, said in a statement that “unless Washington gets out of the way” Americans will not be able to get out of “this mess.”
The fact is that juggling issues is just part of being president. Unlike a candidate for the job, a president is more buffeted by events and less able to stay “on message.”
The challenge for Mr. Obama, then, is to find ways to telegraph his concerns about the economy while also looking like he has done something about it.
His chief contribution — the $787 billion stimulus package — became law nearly a year ago; recent extensions and pending proposals building on the package will bring it to about $1 trillion in tax cuts and spending. While economists generally agree it has helped avert even greater job losses, Republicans seize on the continued high unemployment rate to argue that the plan has been a costly failure.
It's hysterical. Obama is being criticized both for
not doing enough and for
doing too much at the same time in
the same article in
consecutive paragraphs. Not only does Calmes accept this idiocy as normal, but then calmly explains to the reader exactly why that
is normal for Beltway logic.
Either way you see, Obama is the Black Jimmy Carter. If the Dems keep both chambers in Congress...the Republicans
still run Washington.
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