Whatever made me think that I was number one?
I ought to know easy come, easy go.
-- "Easy Come, Easy Go," written by Diane Hildebrand and Jack Keller, recorded by Cass Elliot on her Bubblegum, Lemonade, and Something for Mama album
Poor Barry, it was never supposed to be this way for the Christ-child. Having been gifted with both the Democratic Party's presidential nomination and a press pool too timid to point out his robotic way of speaking -- a stop-start style only heard prior in the monologues of Sandy Dennis, Barry was supposed to soar in the polls and it would be left to history to point out that the Corporatist War Hawk pulled the wool over everyone's eyes in real time.
Poor Barry, like a model turned actress, he believed his own hype.
He mistook celebrity for talent and his already well known vanity only grew and grew.
As he prepared to push his Corporatist War Hawk agenda which would alienate the left, the right and the center, he was convinced his own popularity was neither fleeting nor an aberration. US House Rep Marion Berry would explain that when he brought up the 2010 mid-terms and expected losses, "The president himself, when that was brought up in one group, said, 'Well, the big difference here and in '94 was you've got me.'"
But that turned out to be no great gift at all, did it?
"It feels bad," whimpered Barack.
Segments of the press corps continued to shower Barry with press love immediately after the election such as when some made a big to-do over whether Sarah Palin's endorsed candidates won or lost but 'forgot' to rank Barack as king maker. His losses were much more great. Equally true, unlike Palin, Barack endorsed a large number of incumbents and incumbents generally have more resources than their challengers.
The 2010 mid-terms saw the Dems lose seats in the Senate and in the House -- in fact, control of the House flipped to the Republican Party. Barack thought the big difference between 1994 and 2010 was that Dems had him. Turns out having him was no great plus.
Desperate to escape the humilitation of the midterms, Barack traveled overseas for photo ops -- in which he came off less than impressive -- and for his big 'get' -- the G20.
But Barack struck out there as well. One of the kinder evaluations was found in Sewell Chan, Sheryl Gay Stolberg and David E. Sanger's "Obama's Trade Strategy Runs Into Stiff Resistance" (New York Times). Not since he attempted to bring the Olympics to Chicago had he failed so publicly overseas. And this comes on the heels of the embarrassing rejection of Barack by puppets in the US-client state of Iraq, whose actions Thursday left the bragging White House with, as Michael Jansen (Irish Times via Gulf Today) pointed out, "nothing to boast about."
Slowly, the press begins to break ranks and talk about how "touchy" he was, how "prickly" and, yes, how "vain."
Carol E. Lee (Politico) portrays him today as "defensive and frustrated" and quotes him -- sounding like Norma Desmond all over again -- asking the press, "What about the compliments?"
Yes, Barry, what about the compliments?
Never has he come off more like the caddish Corliss of A Kiss Before Dying.
And never before has he so alarmed the Democratic Party power structure that once embraced him.
In today's Washington Post, Douglas E. Schoen and Patrick H. Caddell get quickly to the point, "To that end, we believe Obama should announce immediately that he will not be a candidate for reelection in 2012." They note:
We do not come to this conclusion lightly. But it is clear, we believe, that the president has largely lost the consent of the governed. The midterm elections were effectively a referendum on the Obama presidency. And even if it was not an endorsement of a Republican vision for America, the drubbing the Democrats took was certainly a vote of no confidence in Obama and his party. The president has almost no credibility left with Republicans and little with independents.
Hermene Hartman (Huffington Post) may have beat the two to the punch, observing last week, "The Obama administration is at a critical stage; they may very well have destroyed the Democratic Party. Their creditability is seriously impaired. It would not be surprising if the party asked Barack Obama not to run for a second term, for fear of losing."
Taking the shade out of the sun,
Whatever made me think that I was number one?
I ought to know easy come, easy go . . .