Obama's Fading Popularity-- Krauthammer: Obama's Speech Addressed at Daily Kos, the NYT, and MoveOn

The redeemer is losing those who believe

More evidence that Obama is losing his base.

From Fox's post speech reaction (via Newsbusters.org post by Noel Sheppard-- video available at link) Krauthammer said:

"Well, I was struck by the tone and by the audience. This is ostensibly a speech to the American people. It was actually a speech addressed at Daily Kos, the New York Times, and MoveOn. This was a speech that was rather partisan. Interestingly, it's about the first agreement and supposedly the first step in a new era of comity in Washington, but it was quite partisan. He attacked the Republican ideas. He said he disagrees with them strongly, but he had to compromise. This was a speech aimed at appeasing the Left which is extremely angry over this, and it laid out the details of the agreement. We came in a few seconds left, a few seconds after it started, but generally when you get a deal like this, he mentions the opposition and the leaders and he thanks them, and he says how wonderful it was entering in these negotiations and reaching the agreement. I didn't hear any of that, which is odd for the first step on a new, a new kind of a tone in Washington."

Watching Obama's speech, I don't think there's any question that Krauthammer is correct.

I think the real question from all of this is whether Obama will continue his hyper-partisanship. And the answer to that, I predict, is yes. If Obama had some actual real world experience in some form of industry where things had to get done with real results, I might think otherwise. But Obama doesn't. He's a self-aggrandizing ideologue and little more.

I doubt that Obama has the ability to be anything else. Shelby Steele has blamed Obama's rigidity on Obama's view of himself as an American counter-culture "redeemer," an archetype here to fix America's past immoralities. I think that Steele is partially correct. And, as Steele points out, "People now wonder if Barack Obama can pivot back to the center like Bill Clinton did after his set-back in '94. But Mr. Clinton was already a steward, a policy wonk, a man of the center. Mr. Obama has to change archetypes."

True enough. Politics for the next two years are going to make this showdown over the Bush tax-cuts look like a high school debate. Politics are going to get brutish and nasty (and you thought they were now).

The only real saving grace is that Obama is losing the Daily Kos, et al. base that he relied upon. If Obama can convince people (with lies and PR because he's not changing archetypes) that he is a Blue Dog Democrat (LOL) or centrist, he may be able to lay the blame on the country's coming woes on the GOP. It's possible, but unlikely.