BIZARRO UNICORN RIDER:

Obama's Jimmy Carter Problem (Leslie H. Gelb, 12/29/09, Daily Beast)

If he doesn’t overhaul himself and his administration quickly, right-wing bizarros will control Congress in 2011 and he’ll be looking for another job in 2013. He’ll end up a one-termer like Jimmy Carter and George H. W. Bush. Obama can’t afford to wait to make a mid-course correction a year from now. He’s got to make a quarter-course correction in the next months. He needs to prioritize and focus his energies on the economy, teach his opponents to fear him, and change some top personnel. Above all, he’s got to modify his own ways. He puts far too much store on being the smartest guy in the room and not enough on experience. He’d do well to remember that Jimmy Carter also rang all the IQ bells.

He can't move Right fast enough to save the congressional party, but he can follow the Clinton template and save himself, which, after all, is the only thing he cares about.

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 29, 2009 6:51 AM