Obama's Optics & the Dim Situation

Jim Geraghty writes in the Morning Jolt:

I was reading The Economist on the way to Charlotte, and their editors noted that most presidents' second terms are more tumultuous and disappointing than their first -- Reagan with Iran-contra, Clinton with the Lewinsky scandal, Bush with the growing opposition to the Iraq War, the response to Katrina, the 2006 midterm losses, and so on.

It's a rather frightening thought -- if Obama is reelected, what would a disappointing second term look like?

 

After a couple of paragraphs reviewing Obama's record, Geraghty concludes that "Obama deserves a second term the way he deserved his Nobel Peace Prize..."

I would say, "even less than," but that's just me.

 

RedState's Erick Erickson explains the Dim situation:

.... First, four years after a concerted effort to paint Bill Clinton as a racist, Barack Obama depends on Bill Clinton’s presence and blessings to secure his re-election.

Second, and most importantly, after a several month effort to claim the Republicans want to go backwards, the Democrats will rely on a bunch of former Governors and a President elected two decades ago promising a bridge to the 21st century to make a case for their slogan “Forward”.

 

In other news:

 

ABC's Amy Walter tells us what to watch for:

Timing Is Everything

Going second means that Democrats get to respond to all the charges thrown at them by the GOP last week. It also means they get squash any sort of convention “bounce” for Romney in the polls. But, hosting a convention in the first week of September comes with its own risks. It is either the first week of school (my son starts kindergarten Tuesday), or the first full week of school for most kids. The new schedule, new homework and new challenges (that oh so fun change of bedtime routines) mean parents are even more distracted than ever. On Wednesday, the NFL kicks off its 2012 season. And, on Thursday night, Obama is competing for 18- to 29-year-old eyeballs with MTV’s Video Music Awards show.

 

No mention of the Debt Clock rollover to $16 Trillion, the campaign fundraising figures due out any minute, the unemployment number coming out on Friday... or the weather forecast.

 

 

Obama’s optics will be just right on Thursday night, advisers have said. Organizers for the Democratic National Convention in North Carolina have arranged to bus in college students and other spectators for the president’s appearance on the final night of the party’s rally in Charlotte, all in an attempt to ensure the Republicans won’t be able to point out a single empty spot [chair] in the 74,000-seat Bank of America Stadium.

 

 

Comments

[Joel]

To show you how strong Reagan was, Iran-Contra was his biggest problem which in essence means it was no problem. The economy was booming and Eastern Europe was staring to implode.

[Mannie Sherberg]

There are several good books out offering descriptions of America after a second Obama presidency -- and they're all devastatingly depressing: Stanley Kurtz's "Spreading the Wealth," Aaron Klein's "Fool Me Twice," and Dinesh D'Souza's "Obama's America." The last one is funereally lugubrious. These books are easier to take than Dante's "Inferno," -- but not much. The comforting thing about Dante's poem is that it's a work of the imagination; the three books I mentioned are coldblooded analyses of our current situation. No comfort there at all -- unless Romney wins.