Not our gig, according to Fouad Ajami:
American democracy has never been democracy by plebiscite, a process by which a leader is anointed, then the populace steps out of the way, and the anointed one puts his political program in place. In the American tradition, the “mandate of heaven” is gained and lost every day and people talk back to their leaders. They are not held in thrall by them. The leaders are not infallible or a breed apart. That way is the Third World way, the way it plays out in Arab and Latin American politics.
In the same paper, William McGurn has a recommendation to save the Obama presidency – move to the right.
Suffice it to say that Paul Krugman will probably disagree:
“Gingrich’s revolution may have saved the Clinton presidency by freeing him from the control of his party’s more liberal base in Congress, giving him the opportunity to return to the moderate message that helped him win election in the first place.
“It was Gingrich who changed the language of American politics and forced Clinton to play the game on his turf,” he writes. “But it was Clinton who ultimately got the credit and emerged as the decade’s most popular leader…”
At the moment, Mr. Obama plainly remains wedded to the view that the 1994 failure to get a health-care bill through Congress marked a catastrophe for the Clinton presidency rather than its liberation. On Friday, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said his boss was “quite comfortable” with the idea that sticking to his agenda may well mean “he only lives in this house” for one term.
Well, we could do it that way too.
The Won will only inhabit the White House for a single term—is that a threat?
Oh, please, don’t throw me in that briar patch, sez i!
ONE TERM. IF. ONLY.
It sounds to me as if Robert Gibbs doesn’t know any more about the minutiae of American political history than his Boss does. In the earlier, rowdier days of our Republic, citizens kept a plentiful supply of rails, tar, and feathers for use when their politicians became too stupid and intransigent to be reasoned with politely. If Barry keeps up on his present course, he may be ridden out of town on a rail.
In effigy, of course.
Marianne
Marianne, you bring up such a lovely vision. Now, who will be Obama’s successor, as Reagan was to Carter?
Serving one term = a sacrifice fly to advance the runner (ie: socialist agenda)
Alas, for Obama, he had no message, moderate or otherwise, to run on. Unless you consider “we are the change you’ve been waiting for,” is a message.
Disagreeing with Krugman is a sign of intelligence.