Charlie Rose

REMant  01/12/2010 10:40 PM Report

Clearly the kids did not come out, but the GOP had a huge lead from the start, and I don't think Deeds, who kept Obama at arm's length and ran a pretty traditional campaign until the very end. had much to do with it. I think the conclusion you have to come to is that the admin has turned off a lot of not only the independents who voted for them, but also the liberals. This is, I think, because it looks a more and more like Clinton redux, and because some important things seem to have not only been put on the back burner, but lost altogether, if not intentionally tossed. I hardly think he has tried to do too much, rather he has tried to please too many ppl, though of course he has been able in the "stimulus" to get a lot of initiatives begun. But the big stuff remains either undecided or in seeming chaos: health care, financial regulation, Afghanistan, Israel, even appointments. I think the Harris article makes all of the points I would have. You can please some of the ppl all of the time, all of the ppl some of the time, but not all of the ppl all of the time. It is dangerous to leave campaign promises unfulfilled, and worse to go back on them. The best spin you can put on this is that it is prudent politics, but I think the voters expected a lot more, "imperfect vessel" or not. I think, BTW, that he has been holding up the Afghanistan decision mainly to prevent it from sinking health care among ppl in his own party. And after he sends a lot more troops there, he can perhaps persuade the GOP to support him on regulatory reform.