Celebrating Defeat

I’m not a big fan of Ezra Klein. I think he tends of over-analyze and over- think, and he is one of those people who is in love with his own intellect. He is not, however, stupid, which so many pundits are. And I do think that he has it right in his piece yesterday when he says that Obama and the Democrats are mistaken in their cheerful celebration of defeat. This budget deal was defeat for Obama and Company, and they are pretending otherwise and celebrating.

I literally could not believe my ears when Obama proclaimed with distinct pride that we had just achieved the “biggest spending cuts in history.” Everything with this guy has to be “historic” it seems.

Klein talks about Clinton recovering from the defeat of 1995 due to a “roaring economy” and that whatever this economy becomes between now and the elections of 2012, “roaring” is not going to be the operative word. I would agree with that, but Obama will be unopposed on his own side, and the opposition on the Republican side may be weak to the point of being comedic. It may take no more than an economy that has not gotten even worse. It may take merely not being in a Great Depression.

On the other hand, a big part of Clinton’s recovery was due to his ability as a charismatic leader and his ability to “connect” with the middle class voting public. Obama certainly seemed to have that as a candidate, but he has shown an almost total lack of it once in office. The cynic in me says that also will not matter, because he is already beginning to campaign, and his campaigning skills are undiminished. He is deadly dull, professorial and disconnected when discussing governance, but when he goes out and does those town halls he lights up.

Obama is going to get a second term. I’m just trying to figure out whether or not that depresses me.