BUT WHO WOULD HAVE HIS BACK?:

Three weeks in, and no one has Obama's back (Joan Vennochi, February 8, 2009, Boston Globe)

The string of Cabinet nominees with tax problems showcased a lack of proper vetting and an overabundance of arrogance. Either way, it produced a team whose key players are limping rather than leaping onto the field. Some prospective teammates never made it out of the locker room.

What happened with Obama's economic stimulus plan also stings. Democrats couldn't wait to push as much of their liberal economic agenda as possible, as quickly as possible, whether or not it helped Obama's post-partisan agenda. Their nearly trillion-dollar package merely reordered the funding priorities that have existed for decades.

"We have his back," declared House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at a retreat for House Democrats in Williamsburg, Va. This expression of solidarity came after Pelosi allowed her members to stab Obama in the back. With Pelosi's acquiescence, the House-passed bill was packed with items that are easy for taxpayers to think of as old-fashioned spending, not economic jump-starting.

Meanwhile, Senate majority leader Harry Reid happily confirmed that he will make sure his home state of Nevada benefits from the stimulus package, via spending targeted for Las Vegas's airport and casinos. To average citizens, that sounds like pork-barrel business as usual. A deal was struck late Friday for a pared-down stimulus package. It must be approved by the full Senate and reconciled with the House version.

As he approaches the three-week mark of his presidency, it's not surprising that Obama remains somewhat in campaign mode. But it's campaign mode without an obvious game plan and some of the eloquence that defined him as a candidate.

When you elect a guy who's never done anything, who has no friends and barely has colleagues (he's never stayed in one place long enough to develop either), and whose entire candidacy was based on his own persona and nothing but, how can you be surprised that he finds himself alone with people seeking to take advantage of him?

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 7, 2009 11:36 PM