I have a feeling we saw a zeitgeist moment Monday, when a professional-looking African-American woman directly confronted Obama about how the results he has produced are nothing like his grandiose, hope-inspiring rhetoric of change. The transcript barely does it justice, but she asked, "I'm one of your middle-class Americans. And quite frankly, I'm exhausted. Exhausted of defending you, defending your administration, defending the mantle of change that I voted for. . . . My husband and I have joked for years that we thought we were well beyond the hot-dogs-and-beans era of our lives, but, quite frankly, it's starting to knock on our door and ring true that that might be where we're headed again, and, quite frankly, Mr. President, I need you to answer this honestly. Is this my new reality?"
It was that last preface that jumped out to me; she's prepared and preemptively swatting the usual line that the country is moving in the right direction but that change takes time.
Obama chuckled a bit in the beginning, and readers of the Ace of Spades diagnose what was going on there: "Some commenters explained why Obama laughed at first at that racist [*] woman who said 'I'm tired of defending you': Obama thought at first she was making the point that exists only in Obama's head, that is, that these attacks are all silly distractions made by unserious people (or seriously racist people who talk about him like he's a dog). He wanted to laugh with her at how nonsensical all this criticism was. I hear ya, sister. It's ridiculous, isn't it? But then she affirmed her own belief in the seriousness of these criticisms and he realized he wasn't going to get what he had been used to -- adulation for his lack of accomplishments. And then he grimaced."
*This is Ace mocking the reflexive labeling of Obama critics as racist.
At Outside the Beltway, Doug Mataconis thought the response was more revealing: "Obama's response, which you can watch here, struck me as professorial and detached, which is pretty much a description of his entire Administration when you think about it. What struck me about Obama's response most of all, though, is that his response focused entirely on what the government could do for this woman by giving her more money, or by implementing new regulations. Hardly surprising coming from a Democrat, of course, but given the current political climate, it does seem that the President still doesn't get it."
Kindly old Ed Morrissey, writing at Hot Air, sees a teachable moment in all of this: "She's hardly alone in worrying about a return to the 'hot dogs and beans' days for middle-class Americans, because many people have begun to realize that this is indeed the new reality under this administration's economic policies. Apparently, that's not the change for which she voted in 2008, but as many of us predicted, it's the change Obamanomics delivers every time it has been tried. Instead of defending Obama, perhaps she should spend her time looking for alternatives in 2010."
It was that last preface that jumped out to me; she's prepared and preemptively swatting the usual line that the country is moving in the right direction but that change takes time.
Obama chuckled a bit in the beginning, and readers of the Ace of Spades diagnose what was going on there: "Some commenters explained why Obama laughed at first at that racist [*] woman who said 'I'm tired of defending you': Obama thought at first she was making the point that exists only in Obama's head, that is, that these attacks are all silly distractions made by unserious people (or seriously racist people who talk about him like he's a dog). He wanted to laugh with her at how nonsensical all this criticism was. I hear ya, sister. It's ridiculous, isn't it? But then she affirmed her own belief in the seriousness of these criticisms and he realized he wasn't going to get what he had been used to -- adulation for his lack of accomplishments. And then he grimaced."
*This is Ace mocking the reflexive labeling of Obama critics as racist.
At Outside the Beltway, Doug Mataconis thought the response was more revealing: "Obama's response, which you can watch here, struck me as professorial and detached, which is pretty much a description of his entire Administration when you think about it. What struck me about Obama's response most of all, though, is that his response focused entirely on what the government could do for this woman by giving her more money, or by implementing new regulations. Hardly surprising coming from a Democrat, of course, but given the current political climate, it does seem that the President still doesn't get it."
Kindly old Ed Morrissey, writing at Hot Air, sees a teachable moment in all of this: "She's hardly alone in worrying about a return to the 'hot dogs and beans' days for middle-class Americans, because many people have begun to realize that this is indeed the new reality under this administration's economic policies. Apparently, that's not the change for which she voted in 2008, but as many of us predicted, it's the change Obamanomics delivers every time it has been tried. Instead of defending Obama, perhaps she should spend her time looking for alternatives in 2010."
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