By Kimberley Strassel
Barack Obama hit the campaign trail this week to resurrect some of that hopey-changey stuff & to complain that his critics talk about him like a dog.
Turns out the president wasnt in fact referring to his own party. Voters might be forgiven the confusion.
It isnt as if Democrats have been showing Mr. Obama much love. Quite the opposite.
Seven weeks from Election Day the vulnerable wing of the majority has finally found itself a campaign issue: blunt opposition to Mr. Obama and his agenda.
Has it only been 20 months?
Candidate Obama swelled into office with an ambitiously liberal plan. He promised his party that his legislative items would be more than policy triumphs; theyd be political triumphs. Stick with me he said and well get credit for leadership. Voters will come to love this stuff. Polls will improve. Ill campaign in your district.
It was bunk as many Democrats knew even back then. Witness the threats and bribes necessary to coax a bare majority for every vote. But enough went along. And now that the ambitious Obama experiment in liberal governance is going kaboom his memberseven those who voted with himare running for cover.
Health care? A total of 279 House and Senate Democrats voted for ObamaCare. Not one is running an ad touting that vote. How can they given headlines about Medicare cuts and premium hikes? You will however find a growing catalogue of ads such as this one from Maryland Rep. Frank Kratovil: As a career prosecutor I made decisions on facts not politics and thats why I voted against ... the health-care bill.
Not to be outdone Alabama Rep. Bobby Brights ad explains he voted against massive government health care. South Dakotas Stephanie Herseth Sandlin boasts she voted against the trillion-dollar health-care plan. But the prize goes to former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes vying to get his old job back:
Not only is ObamaCare financially devastating it is the greatest failure modern failure of political leadership in my lifetime.
Stimulus?
Only a handful of Democrats can be found who will even utter the dreaded s wordand those are the ones bragging they voted against it. The rest have
developed a curious code involving brief references to roads and bridges.
Even the White House is running from the White House. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs crankily lectured the press corps this week that the latest $50 billion Mr. Obama wants to spur the economy is absolutely not a stimulus.
Cap and trade? I voted against Nancy Pelosis energy tax on Hoosier families explains Indiana Rep. Joe Donnelly in an ad echoed by North Carolina Rep. Mike McIntyre and Pennsylvania Rep. Jason Altmire. And the yes votes are rushing to argue that all they were really voting for was renewable energy.
Financial regulation? Whats that? Most of the country doesnt know and few Democrats are bothering to explain. They see more mileage in ads putting distance between themselves and the auto bailouts the presidents budget or the partys cultural reputation. Roy Herron running in Tennessee ran an ad describing himself as a truck-driving shotgun-shooting Bible-reading crime-fighting family loving country boy. This is not a joke.
As for campaigning Mr. Obama failed to warn Democrats thatthanks to the agenda he was asking them to passby September hed be upside-down in his approval on most issues and not much help. Instead of a president to help them Democrats have found a president to run against. And it isnt George W. Bush.
The White House is now letting it be known that it is miffed that more Democrats arent running to embrace its new economic plan. But as parents are fond of telling their five-year-olds choices have consequences. This White House could have pivoted to the economy at any pointas many Democrats were begging it to dobut instead doggedly pushed ahead with an unpopular agenda. Many Democrats are no longer listening.
Will the anti-Obama strategy work? In this environment running away from Mr. Obama certainly beats running to him. Then again midterms are referendums on a presidents agenda and the country is in a mood to punish Democrats en masse. For those anti-Obama Democrats who do survive the political lesson will be that there is mileage in telling Mr. Obama no.
This is where todays exodus will really be feltafter the election. The president still has a to-do list. Yet the more this election becomes about the toxicity of his accomplishments the less ability Mr. Obama has to command a caucus. Republicans will be hunting for votes to block and reverse and some liberated
Democrats may feel happy to help.
Bill Clinton dealt with the 1994 massacre by moving right and triangulating. It is unclear whether the ideological Mr. Obama has the ability to follow suit.
What is clear is that some big changes are now necessary.
The Obama heyday is officially over.
Write to Kimberley Strassel @ kim@wsj.com
Democrats may feel happy to help.
Bill Clinton dealt with the 1994 massacre by moving right and triangulating. It is unclear whether the ideological Mr. Obama has the ability to follow suit.
What is clear is that some big changes are now necessary.
The Obama heyday is officially over.
Write to Kimberley Strassel @ kim@wsj.com
