{"id":2779,"date":"2010-02-20T13:51:19","date_gmt":"2010-02-20T17:51:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=2779"},"modified":"2010-02-20T13:53:27","modified_gmt":"2010-02-20T17:53:27","slug":"qotd-he-talked-his-way-in-is-he-now-talking-his-way-out-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2010\/02\/20\/qotd-he-talked-his-way-in-is-he-now-talking-his-way-out-again\/","title":{"rendered":"QotD: He talked his way in . . . is he now talking his way out again?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Barack Obama has done everything possible to destroy the glowing reputation he brought to the White House after his triumphs in the Democratic primaries and the general election of 2008. The most striking fact about the cloud of failure now surrounding him is that it\u2019s entirely self-generated.<\/p>\n

No credible Republican has been harassing him, leaping on his every mistake. Journalists of the liberal persuasion remain admirers. His most vocal detractors are loudmouthed commentators, unlikely to influence the independent voters who made Obama President. He has no one to blame.<\/p>\n

[. . .]<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t become President for his accomplishments; he did it mainly on oratory. But in office his tone has changed. He doesn\u2019t seem to care whether he makes an impact or not and rarely suggests that something crucial is at stake. You can listen to him for 20 minutes and realize an hour later that you can\u2019t remember anything he said.<\/p>\n

He performs a sort of dance with the cameras, turning first to the right, then to the left, then back again. It seemed spontaneous for a while but it\u2019s now pure ritual. He\u2019s developed a manner that\u2019s so cool it can\u2019t be distinguished from indifference.<\/p>\n

He demonstrates the titanic gulf between an election, however daunting, and the biggest job in the world. Given all the hurdles in the path of blacks, his original decision to run was a brave and breathtaking leap of the imagination. His campaign was brilliant. But serving as President requires even more audacity. Perhaps his many stumbles, and his misguided attempt to do all the serious work of the presidency more or less on his own, indicate that he hasn\u2019t yet learned to see himself in the role of leader. Perhaps he\u2019s become the star of a drama for which he has no script.<\/p>\n

Robert Fulford, “Why is Obama failing?”, National Post<\/em><\/a>, 2010-02-20<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Barack Obama has done everything possible to destroy the glowing reputation he brought to the White House after his triumphs in the Democratic primaries and the general election of 2008. The most striking fact about the cloud of failure now surrounding him is that it\u2019s entirely self-generated. No credible Republican has been harassing him, leaping […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[84,53,41,13],"tags":[158,86],"class_list":["post-2779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government","category-politics","category-quotations","category-usa","tag-barackobama","tag-criticism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-IP","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2779"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2782,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2779\/revisions\/2782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}