The Telegraph: The End of the Affair

Good article by the British press reporting the story that the American press, get this, won't: an analysis on how Obama lost the trust and support of the American people. The American press doesn't want to admit the fact of it, so of course they also cannot write articles explaining how this fact came to be.

This should embarrass the American press. It won't, but it should. We are accustomed to getting actual information about closed societies from newspapers foreign to those countries. We do not expect the North Korean media to accurately report on the goings on in North Korea. For that, we have to turn to Japanese or Indian newspapers.

America joins North Korea as one of the nations about which accurate information can only be had from foreign sources.

Barack Obama: the end of a love affair

Six years after offering hope and change, polls show the American public has fallen out of love with their president – so where did it all go wrong?

By Peter Foster, Washington

Barack Obama romped to the presidency of the United States in 2008 on a tidal wave of 'hope and change'. Back then, the financial crisis was raging and US troops were still engaged in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, but a fresh-faced Mr Obama brimmed with confidence.

He predicted that future generations would look back on his election and see the moment "when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal...when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on earth."

Six years later, Mr Obama is weary and greyed and finds his job approval ratings stuck in the low-40s. This October is the 17th consecutive month in which polls show that a majority of Americans disapprove of his leadership.

With November's mid-term elections less than a month away, even fellow Democrats won't be seen dead with the man who once transformed their party's fortunes. Apart from some closed-door fundraisers, Mr Obama is all but invisible on the campaign trail.

So where did it all go wrong?

The article traces the various failures you are all sadly well-acquainted with, and also notes that the HealthCare.gov fiasco confirmed the suspicion of the public that Obama simply wasn't a competent managers.

It also notes this:

Call it the whip-lash effect, but as the saying goes, "nothing turns to hate so bitter as what once was love." Having been elected on a wave of such stratospheric adulation, it was perhaps inevitable Mr Obama would disappoint more deeply.

It wasn't inevitable at all-- had Obama been a success, love would not have turned to hate.

But he was, and is, and will continue to be, a grandiose failure.

Paul Krugman: This Is What a Successful Presidency Looks Like. He also reports that Kim-Jung Un could enter himself in horse-racing's triple crown and win it, if he felt like it.

posted by Ace at 12:58 PM

| Access Comments