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The President's Island Retreat
· Saturday, August 20, 2011
Is his visit to Martha's Vineyard a sign that he's giving up?
The phrase of the day is "new lows." It blares from every screen. The number of Americans satisfied with the ways things are going hits new lows -- 11%. President Obama's popularity: new lows. The Dow Jones Industrial Average this year: new lows. Maybe it will enter ordinary language. "Charlie, it's been ages. How are you, how's Betty?" "I'm experiencing some volatility, but she's inching toward new lows."
The market is dispirited. I'm wondering if the president is, too, and if that won't carry implications for the 2012 race. You can imagine him having lunch with political advisers, hearing some unwanted advice -- "Don't go to Martha's Vineyard!" -- putting his napkin by his plate, pushing back from the table, rising, and saying in a clipped, well-modulated voice: "I'm tired. I'm going. If they want this job so much let them have it."
How could he not be depressed? He has made big mistakes since the beginning of his presidency and has been pounded since the beginning of his presidency. He's got to be full of doubts at this point about what to do. His baseline political assumptions have proved incorrect, his calculations have turned out to be erroneous, his big decisions have turned to dust. He thought they'd love him for health care, that it was a down payment on greatness. But the left sees it as a sellout, the center as a vaguely threatening mess, the right as a rallying cry. He thought the stimulus would turn the economy around. It didn't. He thought there would be a natural bounce-back a year ago, with "Recovery Summer." There wasn't. He thought a toe-to-toe, eyeball-to-eyeball struggle over the debt ceiling would enhance his reputation. The public would see through to the dark heart of Republican hackery and come to recognize the higher wisdom of his approach. That didn't happen either.
Nothing worked! And nothing's going to work. He's the smartest guy in the room, but he's got the reverse Midas touch. Everything he touches turns to -- well, unsatisfying outcomes.
The president shows all the signs of becoming a man who, around the time he unveils his new jobs proposal in September, is going to start musing in interviews about whether anyone can be a successful president now, what with the complexity of the problems and the forces immediately arrayed, in a politically polarized age, against any specific action. That was probably his inner rationale for not coming up with a specific debt-ceiling plan: Why give the inevitable forces a target? But his refusal to produce a plan became itself the target. Reverse Midas.
Under these circumstances he could not possibly be enjoying his job. On the stump this week in the Midwest, he should have been on fire with the joy of combat, he should have had them whooping and hollering with fresh material and funny lines. But even at his feistiest, he was wilted. Distracted. Sometimes he seems to be observing himself and his interactions as opposed to being himself and having interactions. His audiences wanted to show support, it was clear, that's why they came. But there was something tentative in their response, as if they wanted to come through for the applause line but couldn't figure out exactly where the applause line was. The president was dropping his g's, always a terrible sign, a kind of bowing that assumes he speaks from a great height. He also started saying "folks" again. That too is a tell. It's the word politicians who think they're better and brighter than normal people use when they're trying to make normal people think they're normal.
Now he goes on vacation. Every president deserves a vacation, to the extent presidents can really have vacations, and that extent is limited. If a vacation is defined as something carefree and removed, then presidents never get vacations. There are always briefings, calls, the decisions on how to respond to a crisis or event. It's hard to begrudge any president his attempts at escape. But political foes do.
Mr. Obama's like to show him playing golf. The Democrats did the same to Eisenhower. Nixon was knocked for going so often to San Clemente, Reagan and George W. Bush to their ranches.
Mr. Obama shouldn't be faulted for wanting to rest, relax and spend whole days with his family. But the timing of this vacation is incongruent, and so is the location.
On the timing, there's an air of economic crisis hanging over everything, a sense that other shoes may drop. Actually it's a sense of something impending, with unemployment high, Europe broke and the Mideast reaching full boil. A politician who wanted to impart a sense of leadership in crisis, who passionately wanted to keep the presidency, and who was prudently anxious about his prospects, just might let such a moment change his plans.
As for the location, the president loves Martha's Vineyard, and there's a lot to love -- beautiful beaches, hills, biking. But it's a little island whose summertime population is dominated by those who, due to their affluence, are essentially detached from everyday life in America. It's a playground of the liberal rich: hedge-fund maestros, network producers, Wall Street heavyweights, left-leaning activists. It's the kind of place that reverberates in the national imagination -- that tags you as elitist no matter how many g's you drop.
Both parties have to deal with certain tropes, symbols and clichés. If you're a conservative president, you probably shouldn't spend your vacation at a house on the edge of an exclusive golf club that's had a history of problems admitting blacks, Jews, and the self-made sons of Dad's old half-Irish, half-Puerto Rican cook. If you're a liberal president, you probably shouldn't be on vacation at a place known for snooty liberal insularity.
Mr. Obama's media specialists probably told him what Bill Clinton's mavens told him: If you're going to the Vineyard, you have to go to some real American place first, like the Rockies. Which Mr. Clinton did. Going to the Vineyard didn't harm him. But Mr. Clinton had prosperity, and Americans will forgive a lot from a guy who does nothing to stop prosperity, or actually may help it along.
Mr. Obama doesn't have that advantage. It seems important to him to be true to himself -- not to be the kind of person who'd poll-test a vacation. Or maybe he thinks that no matter what he does, it won't work, so what the heck. But his decision to go now, and there, seems either ham-handed or vaguely defiant.
In early 2010 this space made much of the president's pre-State of the Union interview with Diane Sawyer, in which she pressed the president about his political predicaments. He said: "I'd rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president." I thought at the time: He means it, he can accept being a one-termer.
Maybe he's feeling it now more than ever.
Maybe it means not much will change in terms of his leadership between now and the election.
Maybe he'll be as wilted next year as he was this week.
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mumsie
I think that the reactions that you describe would be correct for a rational person. Obama, unfortunately, is a liberal. As such, the failure of ALL his policies is only that he hasn't explained them properly. The American people are too stupid to understand the good things that he's doing. And he's tried every way he knows to explain to these dumb people how much better off they are now than when Bush was president. What more can he do?
A far as his vacation, isn't he Emperor of the World? He wants his vacation, and that's where the best people go. The people be damned.
Posted August 20, 2011 at 11:05:01 AM
KN
He's still got his "Peace Prize" he can hug each night as he gazes in to the mirror repeating: "Mirror, mirror on the wall ......"
Posted August 20, 2011 at 11:15:59 AM
Jamie
The conservative's dream of a self-fulfilling prophecy: if I keep saying the president has been a total failure, it will be true. Please. "Mr Obama doesn't have the advantage"? Really? Did you watch the GOP straw poll debate? The only thing the media has been successful at doing is making the public doubt......of all things.....a vacation, simply because a President's vacation isn't usually news. This is a bad time to take a vacation? Again, REALLY?? Has there been a good time since the last year of the Bush administration?? While the WSJ has improved greatly over the last few years, it's nonsense like this that makes me reflect on Tucker Carlson's praise of the NYTimes at the CPAC convention in 2009. If you have conservative views, that's fine, but present them in an intelligent way. Is this not something we can expect of our journalists?
Posted August 20, 2011 at 11:21:58 AM
Phocus
You can imagine him having lunch with political advisers, hearing some unwanted advice -- "Don't go to Martha's Vineyard!" -- putting his napkin by his plate, pushing back from the table, rising, and saying in a clipped, well-modulated voice: "I've got a meeting with George."
Posted August 20, 2011 at 11:56:54 AM
Jeremy
"He has made big mistakes since the beginning of his presidency and has been pounded since the beginning of his presidency."
This has to be one of the dorkiest lines ever written. I fail to see how any rational person could say that Obama has been "pounded since the beginning of his presidency." The mainstream press utterly adored the man and fawned over him like no other politician, ever. He was given a free pass to change the world, without any critical analysis. For example, it was clear from the beginning of Obama's reign of error that Europe was a failing continent, yet none in the media (outside of, perhaps, Fox News and the right-wing blogosphere) ever questioned his headlong dash towards European style social democracy.
Now that we're broke and it's clear that Obama's plans have all failed, the left is turning on him. This is nothing more than denial, that is, the left can deny that there is anything wrong with their message, and instead blame the messenger. Pathetic, if you ask me.
Anyways, I see no reason to feel sorry for Obama. There seems to be a lot of this sort of misplaced sympathy about on the right at the moment. As Krauthammer and others have pointed out, Obama never hesitates to impugn the motives of his critics. And just wait until he gets into full campaign mode---it's going to get really ugly out there...
Posted August 20, 2011 at 1:11:11 PM
Anton D Rehling
Electing Obama for president is like loaning your really nice expensive car to an acquaintance and then discovering after they total your car that he had zero experience driving, his license was a fake, he was driving under the influence and now your insurance won’t cover the loss.
Obama is driving our country under the influence of a progressive liberal pie in the sky fantasy land organizer metality. He is a total fake as far as his economic intelligence and pedigree are concerned. Why do you think he hides his school transcripts?
He reminds me of dumb and dumber, Jimmy Carter, dumb and Barack Husain Obama, dumber.
Posted August 20, 2011 at 4:11:45 PM
Wilson Hewlett
This writer writes like a woman.
And she gives Obama way too much credit for being rational and having America's best interests at heart. This guy is a radical who, like his wife, parents, and grandparents (communists) hates this country and wants to see it "get its comeuppance." He's doing a good job of taking it down, enjoying himself in the process with vacation after vacation.
If Americans don't come to their senses and act, this once-great country is toast.
Posted August 20, 2011 at 4:21:56 PM
Mr.Bones.
Bravo Mr.Hewlett! You stole my thunder. This poser is doing exactly what he has always wanted to do.Destroy this country as quickly as he can.He ignores congress!He ignores our constitution! obama is amerikas answer to mr.k.b.g. himself.vladimir putin.Of course if you point these things out.Your a racist! Well so be it.What i haven't quite figured out! What kind of racist am i. Am i a racist that dislikes his "black half" Or am i a racist that dislikes his"white half"It does make it all rather confusing.Or maybe i dislike him dislike him because he's A Liar A Phony and A Cheat! And a Chicago Punk! And those are some of his more redeeming qualities......Semper Paratus
Posted August 21, 2011 at 2:13:10 PM
Greg Welch
Ditto Mr. Bones and Mr. Hewlett. Ditto to talkshow Rush Limbaugh. " I hope he fails comment at the beginning of his Presidency. " Talk about seeing the future, and they all called Rush aevery name in the book. Well, how does this keep all my transcripts, SATS, LSATS,writings, "no writings as Pres. of the Harvard Law Review," strange?, no known school mates to come out and say that they knew him on several campuses. no classmates to be appointed to his cabinet . Manchurian perhaps????????? And now the fawning leftie,leaning, press is slowly realizing and maybe turning n the reality lamp. Please, give me a break.
Posted August 21, 2011 at 5:52:33 PM
GSJW
Gee Peggy, why the sudden change in viewing the Exhausted Rooster? He has been doing this same act since his community organizor days. Vote present 132-143 times in the Illinois Senate. that was a clue that Obama was a LEAD FROM BEHIND empty suit, Chauncey Gardner character, with no character or spine to begin with.
Who is left in all his cabinet appointments????????
That might tell us something negative also. It probably isn't loyalty though.
Posted August 21, 2011 at 5:59:13 PM
Vicki G.
Obama's "been pounded since the beginning of his presidency." ??? Peggy, by whom? The Tea Party? They're mincemeat compared to the liberal media, which has done anything but "pound" Obama.
"He's the smartest guy in the room." ??? Peggy, if he's so smart, why is his ideology still trumping everything from the lessons of history to what's best for the country to common sense?
This is a man who is in over his head with apparently no one who has ever told him the honest truth in his entire life.
Posted August 21, 2011 at 8:58:39 PM
Mr.Bones.
Correct-a-mundo!Miss.Vicki.Mz.Noonan it appears,has been breathing to much of the rarefied air our elites breath.Me thinks she needs to get out in to fly over country a little more often.Maybe her perception of our dear-leader might change.And she'd see him for the low life scoundrel he actually is.Some of our citizens have said.These terrible things were never said about president bush when he screwed up and made mistakes.Actually they were!Everyday.By The Fake Media.Over an Over an Over! Whether it was true our not[mz.plame] comes to mind,as one of the many lies in the n.y.times about the bush addministration.The Big Difference! mr. obama isn't making mistakes.He's doing exactly what he wants to do.As far as he's concerned.He'll Change America! Into amerika? Whether "we the people" approve of the change or not.That's how pharaohs and dictators operate.In case you haven't yet realized.That's what "we the people"elected in November of 2008!Semper Paratus.
Posted August 22, 2011 at 10:09:54 AM
Howard Reed
Hello America,
Even Bama's stringpullers have to be frustrated beyond the pale. When you elect a greenhorn based on the unpopularity of his predecessor you get an inexperienced socialist that likes to party and go on vacations at taxpayer expense.
It is not as if the warning signs were not constantly put in front of the electorates face . . . no, they wanted a counter to George W. Bush and boy did we ever get one.
GW is still smiling as he occasionally says . . . "Miss me yet." I think everyone knows the answer to that. A year after Bama continually blamed GW for the countries mess is when the rose colored glasses began to come off his average supporters eyes to see the alien monster we allowed to ravage us.
The Turban Torpedo
Posted August 22, 2011 at 6:16:40 PM
Common Man
Ditto to Mr. Bones and Mr. Hewlett! Mr. Obama is too busy high fiving his cronies to worry about what us commoners think. I am sure that whoever he really works for is giving him a very high rating. The trick to destroy any country is to attack its morals, destroy the family unit, make as many people as possible dependent upon the government, and create as many crises as possible, allowing the government to take drastic action. Soon we will see them demand that we turn over our IRA's and 401-k's to the government to keep them "safe".
Remember, Hitler used created crises to "temporarily" take complete control of Germany to be able to act quickly.
Posted August 22, 2011 at 8:22:13 PM
LC JB
Yes indeed, Ms. Noonan you've spent entirely too much time inside the beltway with the other elites that are a clear and present danger to the conservative movement. The idea that you should write to evoke sympathy in your reader to 'feel sorry' for this radical poser is beyond belief. I say the man has earned every single one of those grey hairs and the growing hatred of him by his own party. Boo-Hoo am I to feel sorry that the Empoorer (sp correct) can't enjoy his vacation? Please, maybe I could feel a bit sorry for him, if I could only have ANY vacation at all. Peggy we out here in flyover country are suffering at the hand of this alleged man. This wasn't the bumbling of the incompetent fool he is, but a considered effort through the malignant prism of Alinsky to bring the progressive movement into a permanent ascendancy. How dare you ask an American to feel sorry for this swine of a human being.
Posted August 23, 2011 at 12:39:42 AM
Ruffslitch
Hey, he got what he came for-the presidency for a "black" man. It doesn't matter to him or his cronies that he's incompetent-he "made history," as if ANY U.S. president would NOT make history, and now he's ready to rest on his unearned laurels.
Posted August 23, 2011 at 6:15:07 AM
kindness
Man, you people are loons. And Peggy...you used to be someone who had some integrity and credibility. What happened?
Posted August 24, 2011 at 5:35:22 PM
Jeff Toobin
I wonder if Ms. Noonan has ESP? Has she ever met President Obama? This column is filled with such ridiculous nonsense it boggles the mind. Reverse Midas touch eh? Hmm, I wonder if Lily Ledbetter thinks so? Or the people of Libya? Or the soldiers' families who see their family return from war? Or anyone who hated Bin Laden? Or the millions of Americans who have seen their taxes go down under Obama? Or the millions more who will get health care despite pre-existing conditions?
Maybe instead of writing columns Ms. Noonan should get tested for dementia as she sounds more and more like a raving reality challenged lunatic.
Posted August 24, 2011 at 5:43:25 PM
Leo
If you have conservative views, that's fine, but present them in an intelligent way. Is this not something we can expect of our journalists?
Posted August 24, 2011 at 5:46:21 PM
joeyjojo72
Im sorry, but the current president is still a MUCH better alternative to anyone likely to get the Republican nomination. Rick Perry (dumber and meaner than GWB), Bachmann (a joke), and Romney (complete fraud) aint gonna cut it. Huntsman and Paul have their strong points, but neither have a snowballs chance in hell at the nomination.
Posted August 24, 2011 at 5:56:18 PM
joeyjojo72
Oh, and the damage to the economy reached its culmination sometime in 2007. Though of course, the real damage began years before.
The GWB presidency was an unmitigated disaster. You can argue that Obama failed to fix the enormous mess Bush and Co. left us, but thats about it. Claiming hes responsible for the financial collapse, the recession, the housing collapse, the Iraq debacle,etc. just makes you sound like a far-right idiot troll.
Posted August 24, 2011 at 6:01:45 PM
Rusty
Folks? You all do realize this column is totally bonkers, right? Just absolutely cuckoobananas.
Posted August 24, 2011 at 6:08:17 PM
poriv
Obama was provided a bright, new shiny car which he demolished! What kind of nonsense is that for a comment. He was provided with a car plunging off a cliff and he wasn't able to stop it in mid air. What a surprise. Now, Peggy, is you really have something significant to say get off the amateur psychologizing and apply a little critical thinking to the policy alternatives available to Obama with an implacable opposition party with the ability to stop most anything simply by threatening a filibuster on anything and everything.
Posted August 24, 2011 at 6:11:28 PM
Justin
To Wilson Hewlitt, Mr. Bones, Greg Welch, Common Man, and anyone else who shares their beliefs and would care to chime in:
Your notion that the President is bent on destroying our country is interesting, and if correct, profoundly disturbing. To be honest, I find it very improbable, based on what I know. So could you please enlighten me on this? What reasons, what evidence to you have to support this view?
I realize that this topic might be a bit much to go into in comments, so if you can point me to websites, news stories, or other literature that explain this idea, that would be great too.
Please don't think that I'm being sarcastic or slyly combative. I sincerely want to understand your ideas.
Thanks in advance!
Posted August 24, 2011 at 6:30:13 PM
dznygrl
What a load of hooey. Since when did Ms. Noonan develop psychic powers to delve into the mind of Mr. Obama? I notice she uses phrases like "probably told", "I'm wondering if", "or maybe he thinks". In other words, she has absolutely no idea what she is talking about.
I don't care if you love or hate Obama, this article is drivel.
Posted August 24, 2011 at 6:33:44 PM
nonbeliever7
Yes, I too yearn for the Bush years where deregulation and huge tax breaks created the biggest recession of our lifetime. And the 4,000 dead for a vanity war was a big plus. All Obama did was address the biggest issue in the US, health care, get us out of Iraq, save GM and quietly kill OBL. What a failure!
Posted August 24, 2011 at 6:37:27 PM
jaime
"it's clear that Obama's plans have all failed,"
-His plan to kill Bin Laden
-His plan to overthrow Khadaffi
-His plan to guarantee Health Insurance for every American
-His plan to end DADT.
-His plan to protect consumers and college students from onerous and devious banking practices.
-His plan to end torture as an official US policy.
-His plan to save the stock market from the 6,000 point range in Jan. 2009.
-His plan to stem the loss of 600,000 jobs a month which we were losing as he took office.
-His plan to save a million jobs lost with the auto bailout.
-His plan to be scandal and indictment free.
-His plan to cut middle class taxes.
Yep. All of those plans failed.
Posted August 24, 2011 at 6:56:36 PM
James
Ms. Noonan,
I don't think I've read prose more shallow, or less original. The stimulus failed, blah, blah, blah. We have had how many months of uninterrupted private sector job gains? Health care was supposed to bring greatness, blah, blah, blah. I think an America where insurance companies don't dump customers after they get sick is closer to greatness.
Obama is the Sheriff Taylor of Presidents. Always speaking, and acting, with the wisdom of human decency. Can you say the same for the Republicans he faces? Hell no you can't.
Posted August 24, 2011 at 7:54:42 PM
Verbal Hooligan
I don't know what's funnier, the speculative fiction of Ms. Noonan, or the "Booga-Booga, a Black man is President" comments.
If you weren't all so laughable, you would be frightening.
Posted August 24, 2011 at 8:50:22 PM
booch221
More of Peggy's "corn syrup" offerings. High fructose junk food. Fact free--she just makes thing up!
Just keep walking...
Posted August 24, 2011 at 10:16:16 PM
muck
Lot's of comments from idiots who watch Faux News and voted for Bush (twice).
That worked out great, didn't it?
Posted August 24, 2011 at 10:20:27 PM
Greg
Oh wow.
This is really, really amazing.
I actually have no words. How can people like you actually be talking out in the open now? I thought you were all suitably ashamed with yourselves and had consented to pass away without burdening us with your out-dated, completely un-ethical, unbelievably divisive, obviously uneducated, aggressively inarticulate, obscenely destructive, completely malformed sentiments.
Please, please just go away and leave the future to the people who will be ruling you in a few years. We do not want you anymore. This is the guy turning completely ridiculous right-wing strategies against their makers. If you don't like progress, leave the country. There are plenty of countries who think like you. Uganda springs immediately to mind.
New vote. People who write comments like many above don't get to participate in real, progressive, modern health care. They don't get to draw from social security. They don't get to collect social security. They never, ever, ever get to collect federal monies for their farms, their tax breaks, their education, their gas, their police, their fire department, their lives. Have fun! Please! The rest of us are trying to fix an admittedly broken system!
Not...not....not clinging to a book written by uneducated, power hungry, starving fools 1,000 years ago. Of course, not trying to gain divine perspective from a document penned in an intentionally ambiguous way by men who couldn't conceive a world economy if their very life depended on it. Grow old, try to pay for a doctor. Please.
Posted August 24, 2011 at 11:21:03 PM
Judith Meidinger
All I can say is that Peggy Noonan has lost her perspective on "new lows." Pres. Obama is working his way ever upward from the depths of his predecessor's mistakes, lies, and corruption, and he will be reelected. Rick (expletive) Perry? You must be kidding. Even the Bushes hate him.
Posted August 25, 2011 at 12:43:25 AM
Jefferson Jackson
What an idiotic article!
Peggy, please stop working so hard to ensure your own obscurity.
Given your previous work (admittedly it was a while ago) surely you can come up with something insightful, rather than this warmed over junk food of an article.
Posted August 25, 2011 at 7:15:43 PM
Race Bannon
Wow. Here's an idea for y'all to chew on:
Despite your deepest fears, we are in fact largely dependent on one another for our survival and well-being. That's not communism or socialism, just a fact. Eaten food lately? Had a medical need taken care of lately? Driven on a road lately? Left the house without a weapon lately, relatively certain you would arrive at your destination in one piece? Sent your kids to school? Visited a "public" park? Voted?? Well, you can thank all the people who worked TOGETHER to make those things possible, people who organized ideas, goods, and services so that YOU could live your comfortable little life imagining to yourself that you don't NEED anybody. So go on imagining yourself as an independent operator who doesn't need anybody or anything and who's only problem is the big, bad GUV-MINT messing with your little fiefdom. But could you kindly do it somewhere off in the woods - maybe a nice little cabin next to Ted Kaczynski's old place. You can do that you know... live off the grid, grow your own food, generate your own power, school your own kids, keep as many guns as you want (gee, sorry, not the automatic rifles), and generally tell the rest of us to F-off. It's a free country as far as all that goes! But while you're at it, please stop using all the the goods and services the rest of us work hard for and appreciate. Meanwhile, those of us who do not in fact "love wealth better than liberty" (see below) will get back to figuring out how we're going to live WITH one another, in some semblance of peace and honest prosperity. That will probably happen more quickly and efficiently when you, your idea of "God", your racist, xenophobic, homo-phobic, a-historical beliefs, and your faux-patriotism head back to the woods where you belong.
Posted August 26, 2011 at 12:30:30 AM
Ravini
Maybe Obama wouldn't be taking so much flack from the right if he just owned a couple of multi-million dollar vacation homes the way any normal Republican candidate would. I mean really...it's kind of embarrassing.
Posted August 26, 2011 at 12:32:14 AM