The Infatuation of 2008

The Madness of 2008 | National Review Online:

Well written article covering the fact that there was no reason at all to expect BO to be anything but what we now know him to be -- feckless, disengaged, self-centered, incompetent, hyper partisan,  a liar. He was all of those things in 2008 and demonstrated them right before the eyes of the fawning media and masses -- but their blindness was as bad as the idiocy of many "star crossed lovers" who awake when the spell  of infatuation wears off to wonder what they were thinking.

This paragraph covers the mood of "the elite" in '08 quite well I think:

Pundits vied for superlatives. On little evidence, Christopher Buckley assured us that Obama possessed “a first-class temperament and a first-class intellect.” For some, proof of Obama’s godhead became almost physical — a “perfectly creased pant” for David Brooks, a tingling leg for Chris Matthews. For Evan Thomas he was a “sort of God”; for one blue-chip historian he was the smartest man with the highest IQ ever running for the presidency. And on and on, as huge crowds acted as if they were watching Paul McCartney on tour in 1966. After the election, there was real apprehension that the country might not make it for the two and a half months until an elected Obama could take power.

For myself and readers of this blog, the article is primarily walking over ground well known, but there were a couple things that I was not aware of or had forgotten ... National Journal rated then Senator BO as the absolute most partisan of the 100 US Senators  -- this being quite amazing for the guy running as "post-partisan", but naturally, since doing things like going over the voting record of a one term Senator running for President would have been seen as "racist" in '08, that story was covered very little.

It seems that the beheading followed by golf has been enough for another cohort of former BO lovers to awaken, as a large majority of the country apparently finally has (his current approval rating is 43% ... he has been down to 38%). Much like the aftermath of a messy divorce however, this is not to be a quick fix -- in the words of our Secretary of Defense, "the world is exploding all over", our economy is at best sputtering, our debt is following suit with the world and exploding, our borders are open, and the only real growth areas are food stamps and public assistance of one sort or another.

We will be a very long time paying for the infatuation of '08.

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