The Obama Presidency On the Brink

I've been trying to think of a proper metaphor for the position the president is in right now and the best I have come up with is that he's standing in the middle of quicksand. His presidency is disintegrating and he has bullets shooting at him from everywhere. Unless he takes control right now, his presidency will be lost for a long time, if not forever.

His biggest problems continue to center around health care reform. The president is simply delusional. He continues to think that he's on track to pass sweeping legislation. Instead, he's on track to suffer the most humiliating political defeat in my lifetime. He has a veto proof majority in both chambers and he's not going to pass health care reform. He could pass health care reform, but he would have to pivot significantly. Instead, he's shown no sign that this is what he's going to do. He seems to prefer for chaos to reign. The president continues to insist that his best strategy is to commit to nothing. As such, he has no plan. The Baucus plan rollout was nothing short of an unmitigated disaster.

So, what we're left with in the health care debate is a total mess. It only gets worse from there. This mess continues to get more and more messy. Things are a lot more confusing now than they were earlier in the summer. Earlier in the summer, we all assumed the final plan would have a public option. The become a source of controversy and so it was anything but clear that it would pass. Yet, in June and July, we all assumed that we would have a public option. Now, no one knows what will be in it. In fact, ultimately we know nothing. We don't know who will be covered, how it will be regulated, and most importantly how it will be paid for. Just at the time that President Obama needs to bring clarity, instead he continues to allow chaos. That's why support trails opposition by about ten percent.

At the worst time, a series of events is threatening his credibility. First, there's the wholesale and bi partisan rejection of Obama's plethora of czars. Talk about a bi partisan issue. All the Republicans are opposed to all these czars. The Republican party is making as much out of this as they can. Now, they're being joined by Russ Feingold, Diane Feinstein and Robert Byrd. More than that, there's no one that I know of that is defending Obama's love of czars. Just think about that. There's plenty of folks that have a problem with all his czars. Is there anyone that thinks its a really great idea? If there is, they are silent.

All these czars are putting a focus on all the radicals in his midst. Both the czars, and more specifically the radicals, have turned into a field day. Glenn Beck has been given months worth of material simply by hyperanalyzing each and every person that's near the president that is radical. We all know their names, Emanual, Koh, Sunstein, Holdgren, etc. All of these radical folks close to the president is a verification of the worst fears of his opponents.

To add icing to the cake, we have the ACORN investigations. Fair or not, talk radio and the conservative blogosphere smell blood in the water. ACORN is in trouble. There's no doubt about that. Yet, the president's opponents are doing all they can to tie ACORN, and its corruption, to the president himself. Personally, I think their links are fairly dubious. Yet, what I think doesn't really matter. What does matter is that ACORN is a criminal organization and there is a traceable links between the President and ACORN. With each ACORN mention, there is a conservative somewhere tying them to the president. That erodes his credibility even more. Of course, there's a very easy fix for this. All the president needs to do is have Eric Holder investigate ACORN. That would turn this very ugly negative into positive. That would take him back from the brink on this issue but so far that hasn't happened.

There's a certain irony here. Opponents of the president often bemoaned that the media didn't vet then candidate Obama during the campaign. They didn't investigate his past as vigorously as some would like. Well, he is being vetted right now. His associations are under the microscope. His policies are under the microscope. All of them are being rejected wholesale. Had this happened in the campaign he'd still be Senator Obama. Instead, his presidency is being destroyed by the late coming media.