Dozens of key Democratic lawmakers do not wish to run in 2010 on a platform of a $2 trillion annual deficit, serial apologies abroad, and more trillions in additional borrowed money for dubious programs like nationalized health care and cap-and-trade environmentalism. Their earlier Obamania was predicated on expectations that Obama’s stimulus would, by now, be inflating the economy, and we’d go back to a little grumbling at most at Obama’s pledge to return to Clinton tax rates, which would supposedly help lower the deficit.
Instead, we are now talking about borrowing about another trillion for a second reckless pork-barreling stimulus, more debt, and adding new higher payroll, state, and surcharge taxes on top of the new rates. So former Obamian Democrats are uneasy and daily watching the polls for that key moment when Obama’s polls hit 49%, at which point they will begin to bail, and Obama (“This is not about me” / “You’re going to destroy my presidency”), for the first time in his life, discovers that his accustomed charm has now worn off and he is left to draw on two-years worth of senate experience. (Obama at least hopes that Biden, Frank, Holder, and Michelle do not come forth to rally the troops.)
Conventional wisdom was that Obama, in brilliant fashion, boxed Hillary in, by curbing Bill’s mega-speaking fees abroad, corralling her with special regional envoys and czars, and defanging her triangulation by having her give up her Senate seat. But she’s now giving interviews on Fox, talking about American muscularity, and will be seeking a new higher foreign profile to distance herself from the domestic mess — and waiting for another unguarded “clingers” outburst from an increasingly testy Obama.
In other words, politics as usual in the era of hope and change.