Not The One

Not even the won anymore. Clifford Orwin, Professor of political science at the University of Toronto and distinguished visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, looks at the Obama presidency. And is not impressed:

So yes, American voters wanted change, but erred in thinking Mr. Obama would bring the change they wanted. He erred in thinking that his was the change they wanted brought.

Health care was the wrong issue also because there was no short-term health-care crisis – only a long term (fiscal) one – while there was a raging recession. This is the issue that matters most to voters, and Mr. Obama has yet to impress them with his handling of it. No matter that he inherited 7.5-per-cent unemployment: it has risen to and remains stalled at 10 per cent. At that level, paternity ceases to matter. The white working class, which voted for Mr. Obama but has never loved him, is again in play. Scott Brown won Massachusetts as the smooth spokesman of its rough discontents.

Nor can Mr. Obama claim offsetting successes elsewhere. Americans feel not more but less secure from terrorism after his changes on that front. “Engagement” with Iran and the Muslim world generally has achieved precisely nothing. His halfhearted pursuit of the Afghan war has satisfied neither right nor left, while probably emboldening the Taliban. Among America’s allies, the peoples may love Mr. Obama, but the governments smile and sit on their hands. As for greenness issues, they’re browning rapidly, as even Democratic voters become increasingly skeptical of climate change. And will the master of the corporate bailout now take on the corporations? Mr. Obama’s rhetorical cupboard seems bare.

The Wizard of 0′s rhetorical skills are actually not all that good. Only a fawning press appeared to make them so. And, frankly, he was following a guy who was somewhat challenged in that department. George Bush was never great in his delivery of speeches.

On the other hand, I rather suspect Bush was sincere a heck of a lot more than Obama has ever been. In fact, I suspect Obama has never – not once – meant or believed anything he has delivered via teleprompter for any longer than the text was displayed on the machine.

Obama’s real agenda had been revealed by off-the-cuff, off-the-teleprompter statements like those to Joe the Plumber. The rest is all smoke to gull the masses. The great and powerful 0 is all machinations, pretty words and a very little man behind a curtain.

His SOTU tonight will be rife with the word I but will not contain any real substance. (I cannot wait for the I-Count. It will be very, very high, as will the “Let me be perfectly clear” count).

There simply is nothing much behind the curtain.