WHICH GIVES THE UR ENTIRELY TOO MUCH CREDIT:

Anatomy of the Obama Meltdown (Victor Davis Hanson, October 06, 2010, National Review)

Had the Obamites been sober and circumspect after the 2008 election they would have realized that Obama had pulled off what McGovern, Mondale, Dukakis, and Kerry had not, due to a once-in-a-century perfect storm of about six events:

1) The September 15, 2008 financial meltdown that destroyed John McCain’s small, but steady lead.

2) The fascination with a possible landmark election of an African American candidate.

3) The inept McCain campaign that at times seemed more to wish to lose nobly than to win in a messy fashion.

4) The adroit Obama campaign that stressed centrist, “across the aisle” issues and style.

5) The “tingle in the leg” biased media coverage.

6) The first election without an incumbent or vice president since 1952 in which both candidates ran against the status quo Republican record.

Instead, Obama — egged on by obsequious advisers, an out-of-touch, hard-left base, and a toady media — decided that he had done what other Northern liberals had not, either because (a) the country was at last ready for European-style socialism, or (b) his singular charisma and talents could convince it that it was even when it was clearly not.

Actually, Mr. Obama did, correctly, consider his victory to be entirely personal. He doesn't have an ideology other than the self and doesn't care about ideas. That's why he was content with a Republican reform of health care, rather than a socialist one. The problem is that in the absence of any leadership at all on his part the plan was defined by the extravagant ambitions of congressional Democratic leadership and the media of the Left and the hysterical opposition of the congressional Right and its media allies.

Similarly, he was happy to settle for whatever stimulus his party sent him, without giving any thought to how the money would be used.

It would be more accurate to say that he so believes in the magic of his own persona that he thought anything he did would work just because it was him doing it.

Posted by Orrin Judd at October 7, 2010 6:10 AM