TSW #30

[JeffR]

Read the full article on the blog.

Hugh Hewitt, Washington Examiner, April 8:

Whether the prime mover of the president's failure is incompetence or the consequence of a blinkered ideology, the past two weeks have been catastrophic for his re-election chances. In this space of time, every negative argument made against him was reinforced and additional evidence piled up of his certain inability to cope with his job…

Though the damage done is mostly ignored by the Obamalytes of the Manhattan-Beltway media elite, still obsessed with Mitt Romney's occasional verbal twitch (think "two Cadilacs" and the $10,000 bet), the events of the past two weeks will return again and again in the months ahead to frame the campaign.

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Hewitt's ostensible focus here is on what he describes as "… President Obama's erratic behavior of the past two weeks…" but that's simply cover for yet another set of Hewitt's stolid, uncreative variations on a very stale theme, that "Obama is in over his head" (or "o-double-i-o-double-h" in Hewitt-speak).

Rather than offering any convincing examples of "erratic behavior," Hewitt is content to simply rhyme off a series of unrelated things, wildly mischaracterizing them for maximum effect. Thus we're confronted with howlers such as "Obama easily sees and raises Romney on the minor gaffe front…" and " the president's constitutionally illiterate description of the Supreme Court's powers and authority" and "… a speech bordering on hysteria to the Associated Press" and Hewitt's sublimely silly description of President Obama's comment to Dmitry Medvedev, picked up on an open mic, as "chilling and sinister."

One paragraph, however, stands out as a small masterpiece of political spin:

Slow Joe Biden contributed an 11-minute-long answer to a ten-second question on why gas prices were so high, and suddenly, "He is risen indeed" seemed less a celebration of the Easter miracle than an assessment of what it would take for Obama to win back the shattered confidence of a country.

Not a word of truth there (in fact, it's cartoonish), but it's masterfully composed propaganda and you just know that every hardcore, dyed-in-the-wool conservative true believer who read it nodded in eager agreement, and got a racy little chuckle out of it besides.

Following that balletic gem, Hewitt promptly gets his foot caught in this metaphorical bucket and clunks to the finish line:

After the past two weeks, we have to wonder whether he hasn't dragged the country so far down into the sea with him as to prevent a necessary return to surface for some desperately needed gasps of air.

It will take an Olympian effort to turn things around. Luckily...

Hewitt's republication of the Examiner piece on his own blog makes his intentions even clearer. It's accompanied by a photo of President Obama using some awkward body English to influence a golf ball he's just hit. Yup, that raffish do-nothing Barack Obama is just golfing his way through his presidency, and not even golfing well. He's not up to the job, folks, so he's amusing himself on your dime until Mitt Romney sends him packing this fall.

Hewitt missed a little something about the photo, though. The President's shirt doesn't seem to fit right, his feet look way too big, and he appears ready to fold up on himself like a recalcitrant lawn chair. Now, Barack Obama could fall off a Segway while choking on a pretzel and still never be mistaken for George W. Bush, but there is something, well, just a bit Bushian about the pose and the golf course setting.

So is he subtly comparing Barack Obama to his predecessor in office? It might seem so, but Hewitt would see the comparison as denigrating to George W. Bush, who, in Hewitt's weird parallel universe, is a heroic figure:

Bush is deeply loved by the military. In wartime, that is among the most important measures…

But his greatest admirers will be Americans, and perhaps Afghans, Iraqis, Israelis, Indians and Africans a century or more from now who read about his record and resolve in so many efforts will marvel at his restraint and credit his faith and his family for a remarkable service to freedom.

A century? Perish the thought! I'm marveling right now, and I'll bet Barack Obama is too, as he continues the monumental task of undoing the results of Bush's restraint and remarkable service to freedom.

[SeattleGirl]

Good grief, but that man is seriously delusional!

Thanks JeffR! Always look forward to these.

[jaxx]

Remind me to not read Hughie Hewitt. He sounds like a rabid RWNJ extraordinaire.

Thanks Jeff, now we know the kind of inane crap we'll be seeing from those who make up things.