“If you want to be honest, face these facts: At this moment, President Obama is losing, Democrats are losing and liberals are losing.” Sen. Mitch McConnell, perhaps? A radio talk show host? No, none other than E.J. Dionne. After months of spinning for the Obami, explaining that the Republicans were on their last legs and promising we were on the brink of passing ObamaCare, he now bemoans, “Who’s winning? Republicans, conservatives, the practitioners of obstruction and the Tea Party.”
But still, Dionne won’t concede the obvious and rails at the notion that Obama and the Democrats in Congress have brought this on themselves by their ultra-liberal agenda. Instead he blames Scott Brown’s win. (OK, so how’d that happen?) And then he blames the Senate. The way it operates, you see, is the problem — all those deals and all that compromising on ObamaCare (which he previously said would have to be “sold” to voters after the fact). And then he blames the Republicans, who have bamboozled the public: “The economy is a mess. Obama and the Democrats are for big government. Big government is responsible for the mess. Therefore the mess is the fault of Obama and the Big Government Democrats. Simplistic and misleading? Absolutely.”
Actually, it is Dionne’s diagnosis that’s simplistic and misleading. The economy is a mess. And the Obama agenda has nothing to do with solving it. Instead he and Congress have gone on a leftward jag that has scared the public, exacerbated the debt problem, freaked out investors and employers, and convinced voters that Obama is divorced from the immediate economic concerns they want addressed. And the voters are mighty sick of blaming George W. Bush, the Republicans, the filibuster, and anything else that pops to mind as a diversion. They want those in power to govern already.
Dionne remains baffled that Obama, the Democrats, and their extreme agenda would be blamed for Democrats’ sinking approval. “But if liberals and Obama are so smart, how did they — or, if you prefer, ‘we’ — allow conservatives to make this argument so effectively? Why do the mainstream media give it so much credence?” Well, it could be right, you know. After all, it explains election results in New Jersey, Virginia, and Massachusetts, and matches up with polling that shows the public’s aversion to the Democrats’ agenda.
At some point, maybe after the November election, Dionne and the Obami he defends so earnestly will need to do some soul-searching and decide if they want to maintain their isolation from reality. It’s comforting to blame everyone else for their travails, but it’s ultimately not a winning political strategy.