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What Obama Should Have Done During Subsequent Debates
October 29, 2012 | 6 comments
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Just Another Casual Conversation About Voter Fraud
October 26, 2012 | 0 comments
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CNN: Obama’s plan not “significantly new,” just same old stuff repackaged
October 23, 2012 | 6 comments
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Acts of Terror, etc.
October 16, 2012 | 15 comments
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Devastating RNC ad captures Biden laughing at the issues
October 11, 2012 | 9 comments
The Spectacle Blog
When President Obama pledged to oppose an individual mandate, push a public option, bring the troops home and close down Guantanamo Bay, he was clearly pandering to the anti-War left. But after election, his reluctance to follow through on these promises, while pragmatic, made liars out of his supporters who viewed him as less hawkish than both Hillary Clinton and John McCain. Republicans have made it a hobby to call out these pivots as cracks in the president’s “perfect” veneer.
Either Obama knew he was going to have to break these promises, or more likely, he made those promises with the full faith that he’d be able to fulfill them. So either he’s cynical or he’s naive. It’s hard to blame supporters for thinking he’d keep his promises — but why would he make such grand promises when slighter ones might have done?
But conservatives should avoid making the same mistake. A candidate that makes big promises is going to make liars out of them too. In fact, signing on to a candidate that takes on the ideal conservative policy position without detailing the path to success makes the conservative coalition a cheap date to a purely ideological candidate without the tactical sensibility to accomplish much. Winning an election, let alone a primary, isn’t a sign of future policy success.
Michael Barone made a similar point in his column earlier this month:
Strong peaceniks and strong Tea Partiers alike tend to be attracted to candidates who promise to do impossible things — cut off funding for a war, default on the national debt. Facing such constituencies, competing candidates will try not to leave any room between them and the Democratic left or the Republican right. ….
Sometime between now and the first caucuses and primaries some of these candidates may present a more serious fiscal and economic platform than any of them has so far. In the meantime it’s tempting to seek quick votes by promising the impossible and pledging to do things no president ever would.
The problem is that once you get in office this way you may end up “leading from behind.” Just ask Barack Obama.
It’s not that Tea Partiers are unrealistic — their support for politicians such as Chris Christie (who has stated he won’t run) indicates an eye for results. But buyers beware: If they elect a nominee without experience building coalitions whose platform is a Tea Party wishlist, Democrats won’t hesitate to call out GOP hypocrisy when the promises aren’t kept. When a “conservative” candidate is offering you the world, he’s really selling you a bridge.
View all comments (14) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by J.P. Freire
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/08/24/gop-candidates-threaten-to-mak
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Al Adab| 8.24.11 @ 12:42PM
True indeed. The late promise of "Hope and Change" is proven chimerical as many knew it was. Either it was a cynical attempt to pander to voting blocks or a naive understanding of the reality of governing. We do not elect dictators.
That does leave the GOP candidate in a dilemms of being honest with the voters about actual possibilities or raising unrealistic hopes about what a new administration may accomplish. Nonetheless, they need to go on record regarding at least repeal of Obamacare, cutting spending and encouraging business expansion. Congress willing, and every congressional candidate eeds to be on record as well, many steps can be taken to right the dhip. It will require courage and a willingness to take the heat. Let's find out who has the spine and who is still just padding their own nest in public office.
Occam's Tool| 8.24.11 @ 2:10PM
I still love Michele. But I will vote for any Republican except Paul.
Jack in Wi.| 8.24.11 @ 10:54PM
So you will bw sitting out this election or will be voting for Obama?
conservative Bob| 8.24.11 @ 2:30PM
Where we may quibble is on a definition of "what is possible"
Some things inside the beltway seem genuinely mythical in their impossibility that are accomplished routinely outside that cloistered domain.
A big part of O's failure is that he was intentionally lofty/over promising while at the same time being intentionally vague. He wanted people to insert their own wishes and desires in his lofty while empty 'Hope and Change’ rhetoric.
The backlash he experienced was driven by, on the one hand failing to meet the high expectations, while thuggishly operating to accomplish those few items he did deliver.
The end result has been failing to deliver what his supporters expected while galvanizing his opposition.
Clint| 8.24.11 @ 2:44PM
Interesting,
Obama 39%, Paul 38%
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
The president and the maverick are running almost dead even in a hypothetical 2012 election matchup.
Texas Republican Congressman Ron Paul earns 38% of the vote to President Obama’s 39% in the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely U.S. Voters. Fourteen percent (14%) like some other candidate, and eight percent (8%) remain undecided.
Margie| 8.24.11 @ 5:04PM
First the strawman wins the straw poll.
Now it's some others.
So what?
Margie| 8.24.11 @ 5:08PM
R. Paul, that is.
Anybody But Paul 2012.
Clint| 8.24.11 @ 5:57PM
Spoken like The Whacko Israel Firster Joisey White Trash Bigot,You Are.
Amen.
Margie| 8.24.11 @ 6:23PM
Thus sayeth Pope Clint.
Clint| 8.24.11 @ 11:41PM
Anti-Catholic Fanatic Crank Lady Margie Earns Her Reputation, As American Spectator's Resident Anti-Catholic Crank Nut Bag.
Margie| 8.25.11 @ 1:21AM
All hail Pope Clint I.
He tells us what to believe and what to think.
And he thinks we should believe him.
CalMark| 8.24.11 @ 8:39PM
Oh, dear. Another smarter-than-everyone, high-and-mighty Republican commentator telling us Tea Partiers to stop being so darned ambitious.
Nonsense like this--written by condescending fools like this--is why I hardly ever come to AmSpec anymore.
p-squared| 8.25.11 @ 4:17AM
We all expect politicians to make false promises during campaigns - it's cheap entertainment. What made Obama's promises so different was the breathtaking scope and radical change of direction in his promises, coupled with the incredible idiocy of the electorate to vote for him. I find this blog offensive because it pre-supposes that a Tea Party candidate will fail to deliver. The word used was "when", not "if", that occurs. Another subliminal dig at the Tea Party by yet another first initial-middle name member of the self-appointed GOP "elite".