…Writes Ann Althouse
Althouse
6/2/2014
…The president’s political world is more and more beyond his command. Instead, it is driven by Republicans in Congress, potentially power-shifting Senate races in states where Obama isn’t welcomed to campaign, and to speculation centered on Hillary Clinton’s agenda — not his own. Obama tells anxious Democrats that there is only so much he can do beyond fundraising and better implementing the health care law. But he also has told allies that losing the Senate to Republicans would make his last two years in office unbearable.
It’s like he’s already gone.
This sense of diminished possibilities has infused his governing strategy.
The life of a megalomaniac is not easy.
Obama is most animated by the enormous challenge of closing the income gap between the rich and poor, but he’s had to rely on only small-ball initiatives.
Most Powerful Man in the World is just not enough power to animate him — to make him come alive...
Read the whole thing at Althouse.
Related: “Bored by the presidency, Obama yearns to become a full-time member of the global cultural elite”
…8. Obama no longer feels any guilt about vacationing lavishly on the taxpayer’s dime.
Nearly half-way through term number two, the Obama’s are “less concerned about the optics of mingling with boldfaced names, and seem to want to take advantage of the presidential perch.”
During a trip to Italy in late March, the president arranged for a secret dinner party at the U.S. ambassador’s resident in Rome:
For nearly four hours, Obama and seven others dined on assorted pasta dishes and sipped red wine from Tuscany and a white wine from northeast Italy. The guests — Obama had asked his hosts to put together a dinner of “interesting Italians’’ — included renowned architect Renzo Piano, particle physicist Fabiola Gianotti, Fiat heir John Elkann and his sister, Ginevra.
The piece also recounts how Obama “expressed no regrets” about a recent getaway to South Florida in March, shortly after Russia formerly annexed the Ukrainian territory of Crimea. “I needed this,” Obama told Alonzo Morning and other dinner party guests in Florida. “I needed the golf. I needed to laugh.”…
A key to understanding Barack Obama and his presidency may be found in a simple-minded character from a twenty-five year old movie. Truth can be stranger than fiction — and less enjoyable to experience…
Update: ‘Fatigued’ Obama Doesn’t Need Congress
…Meanwhile, the president and Politico completely ignore the pain and suffering of ordinary tax-paying citizens – that is, the ones not playing golf. Take the 78% rise in long-term unemployment from Obama’s first inauguration until his second, or the 55% rise in the national debt, or the 104% rise in food stamp recipients, or the 62% rise in mortgage delinquencies, or the 78% rise in the price of gas, or the 21% rise in the misery index.
So suck it up, America. It is not about you.
