April 30, 2013
ON THE BRIGHT SIDE..:
Obama Channels Clinton's Worst Day in Office, Raises Doubts About Relevancy : Like Clinton in April 1995, Obama struggles against forces out of his control. (Ron Fournier, April 30, 2013, National Journal)
A president is in trouble when he's forced to defend his relevancy, as Bill Clinton did 18 years ago, or to quote Mark Twain, as Barack Obama did Tuesday. "Rumors of my demise," he said at a news conference, "may be a little exaggerated at this point."Not wrong--just "exaggerated." Not forever--just "at this point."Parsing aside, Obama channeled Clinton's April 18, 1995, news conference by projecting a sense of helplessness--or even haplessness--against forces seemingly out of a president's control.
...at least he was never relevant in the first place, so it's not like he's lost anything. Just as Bill Clinton's only historical legacies are the trade bills he inherited from GHWB and the Welfare Reform he was handed by Newt Gingrich, so too is the Obama legacy going to be the continuation of W's Middle East liberalization and passage of the Heritage Foundation's health insurance mandate.
Posted by Orrin Judd at April 30, 2013 3:49 PM
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