Survival is a strong instinct. When one’s career is threatened, ala Congressman Anthony Weiner, the party is quick to rush to his rescue. But support and loyalty continue only up to a point. When matters become clear that continued defense of Weiner threatens the credibility of the defenders, Weiner will be thrown overboard. Excess baggage is always the first to go in an attempt to save a sinking ship.
There is no loyalty among thieves. Personal political survival trumps party and what passes for Washington friendships. The old advice, “If you want a friend in Washington, buy a dog” is about to be proven once again. The rats are abandoning the sinking Weiner ship. When the pack is threatened, they extricate the source of pain. Wiener is too risky to defend and is about to become shark food.
The same process, albeit moving at a slower and less visible pace, is underway with President Obama. Like Weiner, he is a threat to the personal survival of too many of his fellow Democrats. If he is viewed as a negative, he too will be marginalized and abandoned. Thus far the discontent has been subdued. But it is beginning to surface, even in such liberal organs as the Washington Post (my emphasis):
“With some of the economic indicators looking a bit dicey, President Obama traveled to Ohio last week to tout what the administration considers a good-news story: the rescue of the domestic automobile industry. In fact, he also made it the subject of his weekly radio address…. What we found is one of the most misleading collections of assertions we have seen in a short presidential speech. Virtually every claim by the president regarding the auto industry needs an asterisk, just like the fine print in that too-good-to-be-true car loan.” (Washington Post)
When it becomes acceptable for liberals to put these sentiments in print, one can only wonder what must be going on behind the scenes.
A couple of years ago, Obama (The One) was seen as the Savior (even by others than himself). Today he is increasingly viewed as an albatross for his Party and the country. The US has a true economic disaster on its hands, worsened by an even bigger disaster of a President. The economic future of the country is threatened. The reprehensible Congressman Weiner, while currently big potatoes for the media, is a small problem for the Democrats and the country compared with their President Barack Wiener Obama.
While the President is a problem for all citizens, he is especially so for the Democrat Party. He is unlikely to change stripes. His arrogance, ideology and self delusions prevent that. From a political survival standpoint, Obama is clearly a bigger threat to the personal political survival of Dems than Anthony Weiner. Solving this problem will not be easy because Obama is still convinced he is The One, bigger than Party, office and politics itself.
Compounding the Dem’s problem is the dependence on the black vote. Without massive support from this constituency, Dems may never again win national office. Marginalizing Obama will not be received well amongst this important voter bloc.
A repeat of 2010, only bigger in 2012, lies ahead and threatens the very existence of the Party. It will be fascinating to watch how the “old bulls” in the party rid themselves of the delusional young upstart. Trying to do so will be dangerous. Not doing so will be disastrous.
Monty,
I completely disagree with your assertion that the black vote will flee from Obama’s side. That bloc voted for him to the tune of 96% — within the MOE — so statistically speaking, its 100% of the black vote. If we’re seeing any erosion of that support, it won’t fall below 94% — the bloc has far too much wrapped up in a second Obama term. Emotionally, they need him there for validation. Economically, he’s their Robin Hood righting wrongs and doling out cash from “the rich.” Politically, they (and the socialist wing of the Democrat Party) need one more win to cement the foundations of the fundamental changes they must make in the American governmental structures to bring about their utopian society.
Phil,
I do not believe that blacks will flee from Obama. My point, perhaps not clearly enough made, was that the Dems risk retribution from the blacks if they are perceived as forcing Obama out.
As the election nears, the more Dem politicians will view O as an albatross who will drag them down with him.
i read another article you’d written that i liked and linked to here. i agree that obama is not the perfect president (though he got my vote) but the republican alternatives are too horrible to contemplate and i cannot get past the fact that 8 years of deregulation and unfunded wars and tax breaks for rich corporations is what got us into this dreadful state. now they want to kill medicare to give more tax breaks to the already wealthy. something is very wrong with that plan. the trickle down theory clearly does not work in a global marketplace because it can just as quickly trickle down to italy or china as it will to american citizens. also the republican field is horrible. palin is an idiot, gingrich is a douche who swings with the wind, bachman is crazy, romney is untrustworthy (and too religious for my liking), i can’t even name the rest because they get no airtime. right now, obama is the best of a very bad lot. the left and right wing in this country need to come together on one agenda – putting aside all the social diversions – and that is getting wall st and big money out of campaigns. if we could just achieve that (by legislating that corporations are not people) we could do a lot to bring our politicians back to work for us and not the oligarchs. think about it.
Suzanne,
Thank you for your comments.
I generally disagree with your ideas of why we got into this mess, though not necessarily with you comments on politicians other than Obama is the best of the lot. It is a sad commentary on our country and political system that we attract such limited and power-hungry people to the highest office in the land. One has to be power-crazed and unprincipled to run for office under the conditions that we call a political campaign. Successful people are repelled by the process. As a result we get second-rate people. Look at the last 20 years of presidential elections. Was there anyone from either party that could meet the test of our best and brightest?
Money will never leave politics until the unbridled power over economic success is removed from politics. Companies and individuals do not give money to politicians because the respect them. They do it to buy favors or to avoid punishment. That money will still flow to them, even if you prevent it from appearing as campaign funds.
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