In his much-ballyhooed Kansas speech on December 6, Barack Obama commiserated with his audience that “millions of working families in this country … are now forced to take their children to food banks for a decent meal.” To listen to his words, you’d think he was running for the presidency for the first time and lamenting the sorry state of affairs resulting from some other current incumbent’s mishandling of the job. The fact that he is the incumbent and that that the rise in poverty happened on his watch seems lost on him.
Happily, it is not lost on the people who voted for him in 2008. One bloc that turned out in large numbers to cast ballots for Obama—18-to-29-year-olds—has cooled in its enthusiasm. Perhaps even more sobering for his chances of reelection is that 36% of youth voters think he will lose in 2012 against 30% who say he won’t.
With no record to run on, Obama should be a lead pipe cinch for any Republican candidate to beat. The fact that he isn’t speaks to the GOP’s current self-implosion.
Never in my recollection has the anti-candidate rhetoric within a political party been louder or more damaging. On Wednesday National Review Online ran an editorial that spoke optimistically of “the uncharacteristic degree of unity within the Republican party” and then in the same breath offered up the opinion that nominating Newt Gingrich would destroy the GOP’s chances of undoing the damage wrought by Obama. Individual columnists, including Rich Lowry and Victor David Hanson, added their two cents.
Nor has the other front runner, Mitt Romney, been spared the ax. Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, appearing on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, did about as complete a hit job on Romney as any of the crime bosses he put away in his days as U.S. attorneyfor the Southern District of New York.
I have never seen a guy—and I've run a lot of elections, supported a lot of people —I've never seen a guy change his positions on so many things, so fast, on a dime. Everything.
Giuliani goes on to excoriate Romney for his shifts from pro-choice to pro-life, pro-gun control to supporting the NRA, and pro-cap-and trade to anti-cap-and trade.
It is understandable that analysts within and on behalf of the Republican party want to end up with the strongest candidate. It is equally understandable that the candidates have attacked and will continue to attack each other. What doesn’t make sense is for the conversation to reach so fevered a pitch that at the end of the day there is no one left standing.
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