SUPERFUDGE:

When will Barack Obama stop fudging it?: Barack Obama's reluctance to begin confronting difficult decisions is creating the impression that his administration is simply hoping for the best (Simon Heffer., 5/25/09, Daily Telegraph)

What followed was a classic Obama manoeuvre. With protesters heckling him from the audience, and many graduands having boycotted the ceremony because of the President's support for abortion, Mr Obama simply appealed for understanding on both sides. While to many it may seem that abortion is not an issue on which there can be compromise – you either have one or you don't – the President appealed for those in opposing camps to have respect for each other's point of view. Then, in a gesture to his predominantly pro-life audience, he won applause for suggesting that there should be more help for disadvantaged women who wish to carry their children to term, and more support for adoption agencies. He had not changed his views at all, but was assailed afterwards by the pro-abortion lobby for surrendering to the pro-lifers.

The speech gave a crystal-clear view of Mr Obama's approach to politics, but was also a token of how increasingly difficult he will find it to govern so long as he persists in thinking he is still on the campaign trail, rather than in the White House and actually running the country. Despite having won his election nearly seven months ago, and perhaps because of grumblings from critics that he could emulate Jimmy Carter and be a one-term Democrat president, Mr Obama cannot help but try to court popularity. He often does this, as in the abortion speech, by seeking to create an idea that he is somehow above differences within the American nation, and that he can represent neither camp or both camps on any question, however tendentious. It won't work.

The cracks were starting to show in the days before he went to Notre Dame. Having been roundly attacked for undermining those who sought to defend America against its enemies, the President suddenly reversed his campaign pledge to scrap military tribunals for trying terrorist detainees, which brought howls of protest from liberals who had supported him.

His ideal would be a presidency where he never had to make a decision and, therefore, everyone would continue to see in him whatever they wished to.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 25, 2009 7:32 AM