I'm getting whiplash trying to follow the Democrats' talking points. Obviously you haven't been paying attention to Journolist ...
First, it was a disaster when Obama agreed to extend the Bush tax cuts. Obama was a wimp. Then it was a horrid error to allow the omnibus spending bill to die (and with it all that funding for ObamaCare). The White House, liberals complained, also blew it on the DREAM act. And now, presto: Obama has mounted a phenomenal comeback!
Not exactly. The sources of the left's delight - repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" and ratification of the New START treaty - are irrelevant to the vast majority of Americans.
Voters care, as the Democrats should have but refused to learn during the referendum of 2010 (the midterms results were, one wit cracked, "a restraining order" on liberal statism), about the economy, jobs and the growth of government. These are far and away the most important issues in every credible survey, and will be the focus of the Republicans' 2011 agenda.
One can hope!
And if the highlight of Obama's term, according to outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was the "historic" ObamaCare legislation, then the highlight could soon be extinguished. Obama's central domestic achievement is facing judicial scrutiny, a Republican onslaught to repeal, or at least defund, it, and a public that has never "learned" to love the bill.
I don't recall Nancy telling us how great it was, after having read it. You think she has read it by now?
Only inside the Beltway could the passage of an arms control treaty and repeal of DADT consume so many for so long and result in such exaggerated punditry. Would Republicans have traded wins on DADT and START for their wins on the DREAM act, the tax deal and the omnibus spending bill? Not in a million years.
But liberal media mavens have a narrative that resists "bad news" (i.e. scandals, polling, the Tea Party movement) that suggests trouble for the Obama administration. They also confuse legislative achievement with political success. If passing stuff was the secret to a political comeback, then the Democrats after ObamaCare and the stimulus plan would have had the greatest year ever.
And they did. Until the election.
Obama may yet stage a comeback. But to do that, he'll have to do what the left loathes - cut domestic programs, rework entitlement programs, stand up to foreign adversaries (Obama's legacy is irretrievably ruined if Iran gets the bomb on his watch), cut back on growth-restricting regulations and keep tax rates low. And so long as unemployment remains at historic highs, Obama's chances of re-election remain poor.
See that, Charles Krauthammer, speaker of doom and gloom!
But as long as the left wants to succumb to conservatives on the issues that voters care most about - taxes and spending - I suppose conservatives should keep mum. So let's keep this just between us.