Last Sunday’s column re-visited
September 18, 2009 - 7:29 am
The more time goes by, the more my assessment last Sunday of President Obama's national address on Sept. 9 proves to be spot-on. While the predictable pro-Obama press fawned over the president's eloquence and coolness, I wrote the truth they could not, or would not, see:
"After nine months, Americans have begun to make up their minds about this president, and the growing conclusion is this: On the menu of competency, this leader of the free world is one taco short of a full combination plate. He's undisciplined, snooty and less gifted than initially thought, making him ill-prepared to grasp greatness, even when history offers it.
Time and again, in a pinch, this president has shown himself a pedestrian thinker unable to move himself, much less anyone else, beyond partisan politics. Because of that (and I'm sorry to say it) his presidency is likely to fall short at a time when America could use a healthy dose of excellence...
"Instead of inspiration and consensus, he bared his ideological fangs and called his way the "moral imperative" highway to "real" (translation: "radical") change. He couldn't have been more holier-than-thou as he slipped into his trademark snotty tone to dismiss critics and further ignite partisanship. Instead of elevating the debate, he widened the divide, which I suspect now dooms a health care "reform" bill from passing Congress with any kind of bipartisan support."
Now comes no less than Charles Krauthammer in a Washington Post column released for this weekend to reinforce that assessment:
"Obama doesn't lie. He implies, he misdirects, he misleads -- so fluidly and incessantly that he risks transmuting eloquence into mere slickness.
"Slickness wasn't fatal to "Slick Willie" Clinton because he possessed a winning, nearly irresistible charm. Obama's persona is more cool, distant, imperial. The charming scoundrel can get away with endless deception; the righteous redeemer cannot."
You can re-read my column by clicking here.
You can read Krauthammer by clicking here.
it's worth your time.