Columnist.
WASHINGTON -- Scott Simon -- the sonorous voice of NPR’s “Weekend Edition” -- has written a short, tender book about the two most important people in the world. At least to him. “Baby, We Were Meant for Each Other” recounts the arrival of his two daughters, Elise and Lina, from China, while telling the stories of other families changed by adoption.
WASHINGTON -- So the “summer of recovery” swelters on, with Democrats sun-blistered, pestered by bottle flies, sand in their swimsuits, water in their ears. Jobless claims increase, Republicans lead the generic congressional ballot and George W. Bush is six points more popular than President Obama in “frontline” Democratic districts that are most vulnerable to a Republican takeover. Still, Democrats hug the hope that Obama is really the liberal Ronald Reagan -- but without wit, humor, an explainable ideology or an effective economic plan. Other than that, the resemblance is uncanny.
WASHINGTON -- The most destructive gap for President Obama is not the Republican lead on the generic congressional ballot, or even a job disapproval that has surpassed approval -- it is the gap between aspiration and reality.
His first intervention, at a White House dinner for Ramadan on Friday, was an unqualified defense of both religious liberty and religious tolerance, implying that opposition to a mosque near Ground Zero violated both. In his second intervention, in an unplanned exchange with a reporter on Saturday, he insisted that he was not commenting “on the wisdom” of building the mosque, merely affirming the right to a construction permit. It was not a contradiction, but it was a marked change in tone. Obama managed to collect all the political damage for taking an unpopular stand without gaining credit for political courage.
WASHINGTON -- The final state to ratify the 14th Amendment was Ohio -- in September 2003. The Ohio Legislature had passed the amendment in 1867, but then rescinded its approval a year later, claiming it was “contrary to the best interests of the white race.” When Ohio finally rectified this embarrassing bit of history, just one legislator -- Republican state Rep. Tom Brinkman from Cincinnati -- voted against it. His opposition was viewed as an isolated curiosity.
WASHINGTON -- In 1980, Bill Clinton was defeated for re-election as Arkansas governor, making him the youngest ex-governor in America. According to one account, “Clinton sank into a deep funk. Wandering the streets of Little Rock, he’d stop to question strangers: ‘Why do you think I lost?’”
Democrats are now feeling enormous political stress. Independents have fled the Obama coalition, largely out of concern about debt, deficits and spending. Intensity is all on the Republican and conservative side. A recent Gallup poll found that the percentage of Republican voters who say they are “very enthusiastic” to vote in 2010 is twice the percentage of Democrats who say the same (44 percent to 22 percent). President Obama’s job approval now flirts with 40 percent, with solid majorities disapproving his handing of the economy, deficits and health care.
WASHINGTON -- If politics were literature, Bill Clinton would be Tom Buchanan in “The Great Gatsby,” casually smashing lives around him while remaining untouched by the chaos he creates. Barack Obama is more like Macon Leary in “The Accidental Tourist,” the author of tour guides who hates travel. “He was happiest with a regular scheme of things” -- a cautious driver and committed flosser, systematic and steady, suspicious of unpredictable yearnings, displaying an “appalling calm” in times of crisis. “If you let yourself get angry you’ll be ... consumed,” Macon says. “You’ll burn up. It’s not productive.” Only order and method are productive. He is attracted to the “virtuous delights of organizing a disorganized country.”
