Obama’s quote deserves to be reiterated in full: “That whole philosophy of persistence, by the way, is one that I’m going to be emphasizing again and again in the months and years to come, as long as I am in this office. I’m a big believer in persistence.”

Persistence is the new change; why not? In the semantic void of Obamaspeak anything goes so long as nothing is well-defined. The electorate that voted him into power didn’t seem particularly concerned with the details or substance of the promised change. Obama expects similar public indifference to whatever policies “that whole philosophy of persistence” is applied to. Abe wrote,

But persistence isn’t a “philosophy.” One can be a persistent pacifist or a persistent neo-liberal or a persistent fascist or a persistent wealth-spreader or a persistent anything. So what is he actually putting us on notice of?

What he has been persistent about is anything but ambiguous: wealth redistribution across the board, long-term increases in government spending (particularly in entitlement programs), unprecedented federal authority in regulating private enterprise, and, on the foreign-policy front, non-conditional engagement of rogue regimes via unilateral concessions.

Obama was trying to preempt future confrontations with reality: How long will it take before his administration’s persistent efforts in the same statist direction yield positive signs of economic recovery, or before the apologetic overtures toward Iran succeed in unclenching the mullahs’ fists? Indefinitely, Obama seems to be saying. His philosophy of persistence dictates that we keep trying over and over until we succeed, without reality checks.

There is something to be said for this kind of persistence, and Rita Mae Brown said it best: “Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.”