A second earthquake hit in the Western hemisphere this week. Scott Brown defeated Martha Coakley in the special election held to fill Ted Kennedy’s old seat in Massachusetts, denying the Democrats a filibuster proof Senate and throwing the drive for Obama’s centerpiece project –health care reform—into disarray. Obama apparently remains in denial and has simply asserted that he has lost touch with the American people because he focused too much on policymaking and not enough on communicating directly with the American people. Actually, it is the policies. He communicated directly to the American people on health care reform, and the more he spoke the less they liked it. The Democrats are also blaming Coakley for running a poor campaign. Again, they are misreading the smoke signals. This race had nothing to do with Coakley. It had a lot to do with halting the biggest expansion of government in a couple of generations and importation Chicago style politics to Washington. After New Jersey, Virginian, the failed attempt to get the Olympics to Chicago and the debacle in Copenhagen, and now the loss of Kennedy’s old seat, if O doesn’t take a good hard look in the mirror, he’ll be in real trouble in November. The Democrats have explanations and rationalizations—the town hall tea parties are a bunch of kooks, a bad campaign by Coakley, not enough communication by Obama. But these excuses hide a harder truth. The American people aren’t buying what you’re selling. This massive attempt to turn us into a European semi-socialist state is running into stiff headwinds. It’s not where we want to go.
Early last year, I wrote that I was strangely nostalgic for the Clinton years. That’s because Clinton really did listen. When he lost the midterms in ’94, he adjusted course and became a better president for it. In contrast, Obama thus far seems tone deaf.
A successful leader must listen to his constituents. Obama’s voters gave him the office and gave him an agenda—job growth and ending the war in Iraq. And Obama has said, “I don’t care what your agenda is, America. I have mine.”
Until he adjusts his priorities to the country’s, his administration will continue to be punished at the polls.
Early last year, I wrote that I was strangely nostalgic for the Clinton years. That’s because Clinton really did listen. When he lost the midterms in ’94, he adjusted course and became a better president for it. In contrast, Obama thus far seems tone deaf.
A successful leader must listen to his constituents. Obama’s voters gave him the office and gave him an agenda—job growth and ending the war in Iraq. And Obama has said, “I don’t care what your agenda is, America. I have mine.”
Until he adjusts his priorities to the country’s, his administration will continue to be punished at the polls.
No comments:
Post a Comment