Patriotic Dissent

Obama Endorser Has Second Thoughts

The Economist endorsed Barack Obama for the Presidency. They aren’t so sure now:

His performance has been weaker than those who endorsed his candidacy, including this newspaper, had hoped. Many of his strongest supporters—liberal columnists, prominent donors, Democratic Party stalwarts—have started to question him. As for those not so beholden, polls show that independent voters again prefer Republicans to Democrats, a startling reversal of fortune in just a few weeks. Mr Obama’s once-celestial approval ratings are about where George Bush’s were at this stage in his awful presidency. Despite his resounding electoral victory, his solid majorities in both chambers of Congress and the obvious goodwill of the bulk of the electorate, Mr Obama has seemed curiously feeble.

We told you, and you wouldn’t listen.

The failure to staff the Treasury is a shocking illustration of administrative drift. There are 23 slots at the department that need confirmation by the Senate, and only two have been filled. This is not the Senate’s fault. Mr Obama has made a series of bad picks of people who have chosen or been forced to withdraw; and it was only this week that he announced his candidates for two of the department’s four most senior posts. Filling such jobs is always a tortuous business in America, but Mr Obama has made it harder by insisting on a level of scrutiny far beyond anything previously attempted. Getting the Treasury team in place ought to have been his first priority.

He has so far staffed it with one, a tax cheat. This is just the beginning, as the Obama house of cards comes crashing down in such a public way, even die-hard Obamaites will be hard pressed not to see the mistake they made.

Ed Morrissey has a different take on the tax cheat:

If there are literally no candidates of any qualification who have paid their taxes properly, maybe that’s an indication that we should simplify our tax codes rather than make them even more complicated and punitive, as Obama has proposed.

No, sorry. Fact is the laws are the laws, as they are. Geithner is a tax cheat under the current tax code, and that’s all that matters at this time.

Sphere: Related Content

One Response to “Obama Endorser Has Second Thoughts”