In addition to persuading me not to see Wall-E and the gratuitous swipes at John McCain, Frank Rich’s column offers further proof that the bloom is off the Barack Obama rose for liberals. Rich comments:
For me, Mr. Obama showed signs of jumping the shark two weeks back, when he appeared at a podium affixed with his own pompous faux-presidential seal. It could have been a Pixar sight gag. In fact, it is a gag in “Wall-E,” where, in a flashback, we see that the original do-nothing chief executive of Buy N Large (prone to pronouncements like “stay the course”) boasted his own ersatz presidential podium. For all the hyperventilation on the left about Mr. Obama’s rush to the center — some warranted, some not — what’s more alarming is how small-bore and defensive his campaign has become. Whether he’s reaffirming his long-held belief in faith-based programs or fudging his core convictions about government snooping, he is drifting away from the leadership he promised and into the focus-group-tested calculation patented by Mark Penn in his disastrous campaign for Hillary Clinton. Mr. Obama’s Wednesday address calling for renewed public service is unassailable in principle but inadequate to the daunting size of the serious American crisis at hand. The speech could have been — and has been — delivered by any candidate of either party in any election year since 1960.
Well, there is nothing new about politicians drifting to the center in the general election and there is nothing new about spouting political clichés. There also is nothing new about arrogant politicians or ones who talk out of both sides of their mouth on key issues from war to abortion. Indeed, all these are time-honored traditions. But Obama was supposed to be new, right?
Making up for his lack of experience was his stunning political virtue (we could finally be proud of our country because he had arrived), blazing insight ( ah– Washington is where good ideas go to die!) and sterling judgment. But if he breaks promises right and left, tosses his reform mantle away (for millions in cold hard cash), reveals himself to be Clintonian in lack of attachment to core beliefs, and is sort-of, kinda about to prove (if not admit) he was wrong on the most important national security judgment (the surge) he faced on the national stage, what exactly is his selling point?
