How Obama Screws His Base

I know they’re paying me to make sense of this stuff, but this one’s really beyond me. I mean, put yourselves in their shoes. Let’s say you’re the president of a country whose political opposition is going nuts. On television, pretty much every day, you find yourself compared to Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, and Satan. A respected leader of the party, much admired in the media, says you are motivated by “Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior,” and that your presidency amounts to “a wonderful con.” Another one says your health plan is designed to murder old folks. And backed up by an estimated $400 million in unaccountable corporate and conservative spending, thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court.

With your own party heading for disaster in the polls, a number of its candidates are running away from you faster than you can say, “You really considered this guy for vice president?” In the meantime, a number of your most devoted supporters are noticing that in your quest to make deals with the same folks—the ones who hate you and the ones who are running away from you—you appear to be letting go of more than a few promises you made to them during your election campaign: promises that, presumably, had something to do with why they supported you in the first place.