Obama's contempt for American voters

Carol Platt Liebau:

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Marinated in left-wing academic environments, seeking election only in what had been a safely “blue” state, and ascending easily to the presidency despite compiling the most liberal voting record in the Senate, President Obama has never before been forced to confront the possibility that his most cherished assumptions about America and the world might not always be correct – and, what’s more, that they might turn out to be profoundly unpopular. Coupled with the already-steep learning curve of the presidency, that’s a lot for anyone to process in one year.

Despite having been billed as a deep and introspective thinker, the question is whether the President will display any capacity for the kind of hard-headed, pragmatic analysis that could prompt him to attempt a mid-course correction when it comes to his policies on Iran, mirandizing terrorists, and imposing a domestic agenda that elevates spending and government expansion above fiscal prudence and job creation. Does he possess the kind of flexibility, for example, that will allow him to revisit his obvious and long-standing aversion to “tax cuts for the wealthy” – in order to adopt policies that will spur job growth and economic recovery?

The next few weeks should be telling. If the president honestly and openly recommits himself to the transparency, bipartisanship and pragmatism that he extolled in his campaign, there’s time for recovery. But if he doubles down on his extant agenda – beginning with an effort to impose health care “reform” on a hostile electorate through the reconciliation process – Americans will be forced to conclude that the President’s regard for his own agenda is exceeded only by his contempt for their views.

Obama has shown himself to not be an astute politician. His gift for oratory has failed him and yet he pushes on into his own health care quagmire. If he pushes the health care bill through on a reconciliation track he and Democrats will see an increasing wrath of voter rejection of them.