Karl Rove observes that Obama’s self-grading of a B+ constitutes a serious case of grade inflation. He writes:
Mr. Obama has not governed as the centrist, deficit-fighting, bipartisan consensus builder he promised to be. And his promise to embody a new kind of politics—free of finger-pointing, pettiness and spin—was a mirage. He has cheapened his office with needless attacks on his predecessor.
Because so many conservatives never bought into candidate Obama’s image as a “centrist, deficit-fighting, bipartisan consensus builder,” it’s hard for many to appreciate fully just how fervently many voters did embrace that portrait of Obama. He was the candidate who didn’t raise his voice and promised an alternative to the Bush-Clinton-Bush partisan wars. Calm and cool, above the fray. He was going to go line by line through the budget. No taxes on anyone not “rich.” He believed in “markets,” he told CNBC. Voters grabbed on to these messages and averted their eyes from data that didn’t fit the campaign-approved image of a reasoned centrist. And his embrace of the “good war” — Afghanistan — without reservation and of sanctions against Iran conveyed to many that he would be more Clinton than McGovern. That has not been the case.
When, as Rove points out, Obama disparages in his 60 Minutes interview a “a triumphant sense about war” and turns up his nose at the notion that our war to preserve Western civilization is a “glorious” endeavor, he is repudiating a long tradition, really an unbroken one, of American presidents. We’ve never had a president parrot the antiwar Left’s rhetoric, at least not after getting elected. And his domestic agenda is far more radical than those who touted his “moderation” were led to believe — or chose to believe. As for that “superior temperament,” well, we haven’t seen that in some time. We get threats, dire warnings, narcissism, and huffiness.
So it may be that the collapse in Obama’s ratings has much to do with the chasm between expectations and reality. Most voters pretty much had George W. Bush and Bill Clinton pegged. Few were surprised by Ronald Reagan. But many voters took a year to figure out that they weren’t getting what they thought they would get when they elected Obama. Recent polling reflects Obama’s rather shoddy domestic record, the paltry results of his “engagement” foreign-policy ventures, the still bleak jobs situation, and most of all, a large helping of buyer’s remorse. Voters may have been naive, but now they are disappointed.
