Obama's tin ear

Michael Goodwin:

Of all the surprises of President Obama's first year, the biggest is his continuing tin ear for the mood of the country. He often appears clueless about what Americans want.

Almost from the moment he stepped into the Oval Office, the man who smashed the Clinton machine and won an electoral landslide over John McCain seemed to lose his touch with the people who put him there.

Some days, many days, he doesn't look like he cares that big chunks of the country, left, right and center, are giving up on him.

Voters by a large margin have said for months they don't want the health-care overhaul he's pushing, so he pushes harder. They want less spending and debt, so he doubles down on pork, bailouts, handouts and taxes.

They thought he would deliver bipartisanship, and he gives his hard-left allies the keys to the kingdom.

They worry about terrorism, so he wants to close Gitmo and move the worst of the worst to the homeland. With Ground Zero still a mess, he gives the 9/11 plotters civilian trials in New York.

His approval ratings are speeding downhill and some 60 percent say the country is on the wrong track. He responds by giving himself a "good solid B-plus" for his first year.

And he says Wall Street bankers "don't get it."

It comes as no surprise, of course, that our young president has a very, very high opinion of himself. But it is nonetheless shocking he remains so brazenly self-righteous in the face of growing public discontent.

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When something goes wrong, it's not his fault. "Fat-cat bankers," "greedy" insurance companies, doctors who do amputations just for the money, special interests, the media -- the media! -- have all taken their turns being blamed for what he hasn't fixed.

The buck doesn't stop on his desk!

If all other scapegoats fail, there's always George W. Bush. Pressed during last Sunday's "60 Minutes" interview on his decision to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, Obama shared his pain and slandered Bush -- all to distinguish his troop surge from his predecessor's.

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Why should he get down on himself when he has so many other scape goats to blame? He is a guy who has never really had to take responsibility and he is not warming to the task. When it comes to executive decisions he is a novice and it is showing.