It can be no secret by now that President Obama did not have a signature achievement his first year in office. Of all his major initiatives, health care, cap and trade, civilian trials for terrorists and the “stimulus” bill – only the so-called stimulus bill was enacted. Hardly a success, as more Americans than not know what Paul Krugman and E.J. Dionne do not – that it was a bad idea. Worse for the Democrats — none of those efforts have produced a greater consensus or momentum for them or Obama. To the contrary, the Democrats lost key races in 2009, a Democrat House Member defected to the Republicans, the nation is more divided than ever and the Democrat Party is in disarray — as in the Obama presidency.
Not to be out-done by 2009, in 2010, the Obama presidency has endured:
(1) the loss of the Kennedy seat (which is how the Democrats view that race) even though Obama stumped for the Democrats’ candidate;
(2) Obama’s deficit commission was shot down;
(3) The unions are warning the Democrats that they are “going to have a hard time getting members out to vote”;
(4) Democrats are slowly signing onto a bill to defeat Obama’s civilian trial for terrorists,
(5) Obama’s TSA nomination died before a vote;
(6) Obama’s NLRB nomination died after a vote;
(7) Nancy Pelosi is openly criticizing Obama’s plans for a job bill;
(8) Some Democrats are openly worrying about the political effect of the expiration of the Bush tax cuts;
(9) the left, in general, is openly criticizing Obama on a host of issues from the wars to his comments on Wall Street bonuses.
In other words, far from standing with Obama, Democrats have no fear of Obama anymore and all of that is playing almost daily in the nation’s newspapers, TV and the internet. Obama’s troubles are coming far too fast for even the mainstream media to ignore. Highlighting all of those problems is the fact that Obama’s poll numbers have reached new lows.
As bad as that anti-momentum is (and I use the word “anti-momentum” because Republicans still need to positively turn this to their favor with a “Republican Plan for America’s Renewal”), Obama’s troubles are going to get worse – much worse.
Obama is now open to tax increases on the middle class (“agnostic” is the word he used). Anyone with a memory of longer than 15 years can tell you how successful Bill Clinton was in his first midterm elections after breaking his promise of a middle class tax cut or at least 54 lost House seats and the Speakership well remember.
Amidst so much Democrat blood in the water, it is no wonder Congressional Democrats are distancing themselves from Obama. If Obama pushes that middle class tax hike, rather than backing away from Obama, they will turn and run and the Obama Presidency will have officially unraveled.