Camille Paglia, as only she can, goes on a tear, confessing her “dismay bordering on horror at the amateurism of the White House apparatus for domestic policy.” She takes a wrecking ball to the Obama health-care approach:

But who would have thought that the sober, deliberative Barack Obama would have nothing to propose but vague and slippery promises—or that he would so easily cede the leadership clout of the executive branch to a chaotic, rapacious, solipsistic Congress? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whom I used to admire for her smooth aplomb under pressure, has clearly gone off the deep end with her bizarre rants about legitimate town-hall protests by American citizens. She is doing grievous damage to the party and should immediately step down.

That’s not all that upsets her. She finds Obama lacking in both a coherent strategy (“Obama’s aggressive endorsement of a health-care plan that does not even exist yet, except in five competing, fluctuating drafts, makes Washington seem like Cloud Cuckoo Land”) and in candor on the substance:

You can keep your doctor; you can keep your insurance, if you’re happy with it, Obama keeps assuring us in soothing, lullaby tones. Oh, really? And what if my doctor is not the one appointed by the new government medical boards for ruling on my access to tests and specialists? And what if my insurance company goes belly up because of undercutting by its government-bankrolled competitor? Face it: Virtually all nationalized health systems, neither nourished nor updated by profit-driven private investment, eventually lead to rationing.

Nor does she appreciate the attempt to jam this all through: “I just don’t get it. Why the insane rush to pass a bill, any bill, in three weeks? And why such an abject failure by the Obama administration to present the issues to the public in a rational, detailed, informational way?”

And that’s just the warm-up. She dubs the invitation to rat out fellow citizens to the White House “blatant totalitarianism.” And she finds all the “soulless collectivism” of the Democratic party downright depressing.

Well, some of us aren’t as surprised. Many suspected that Obama was an ultra-leftist running a fundamentally dishonest campaign. A net decrease in spending, a fervent pro-Israeli Middle East policy, a line-by-line budget-cutting exercise, no taxes on the non-rich (smokers? energy users?), and a lobbyist-free government are among the long-since-discarded promises. Some of us observed his heavy-handed campaign tactics (e.g., jamming radio stations that attempted to explore the Bill Ayers connection, asking the Justice Department to investigate third-party groups, ludicrously dishonest campaign ads to tar John McCain as anti-immigrant) and suspected we would be in for some unprecedented Chicago Way politics.

But many Americans previously sympathetic to Obama had not an inkling about what was in store. The disillusionment sweeping over so many shouldn’t be discounted. This phenomenon is real and may have long-lasting consequences for the president’s agenda and political viability. He may be wise enough to undertake a course correction and regain the support of the public. However, he better get cracking—there are many like Paglia (albeit, not as articulate) who are reeling and whose faith will not be easily restored.