Obama's biggest problem

The more Obama is Obama the worse he does.  Unless he finds a way to reinvent himself, he is in bad shape for November. Worse for him, he's got nothing on his resume to indicate that he has what it takes to make the necessary changes or to sell such changes to the public. As we saw from his disastrous economic speech yesterday, he seems intent on trying to run the same failed plays over and over.  It's likely that he can't think of anything else to try.  And it isn't just his failed policy plays.  It's the way he executes his fundamental techniques.

BO has a track record of falsehoods, slander and dirty tricks.  When he was the media darling, it didn't matter.  But the tingle is long gone.  The news media will certainly continue to work for him, but the work has become drudgery.  His opponents sense it is now socially acceptable to point out his flaws and sometimes even his supporters are joining in.  Lefty cheerleader, Dana Milbank, has a column today entitled "Skip the falsehoods, Mr President, and give us a plan" in which he chastises Obama for his "falsehood wrapped in a fallacy".

But Obama was just being Obama.  He routinely mis-characterizes his opponents' proposals, sets up false choices, claims unrealistic benefits from his proposals, and slanders anyone who disagrees with him.  He's fundamentally an unserious person with a penchant for pointing the finger of blame at everyone but himself.  These aren't attractive qualities.  As voters pay more attention, they will become increasingly unattractive.

Like a football coach who thinks his brilliant coaching is the reason for his previous success against weak opponents, BO's instinct now that he finds his standard plays aren't working will be to get back to basics, focus on fundamentals, and work harder at doing the things that have been successful for him in the past.  It's unlikely he will realize that those very things are the things the voters find unattractive.

And even if he should realize this, it seems unlikely that he will be able to come up with new plays and a new way to execute them.