Mysteriously – if you’re the New York Times or a commentator on MSNBC – the country has grown weary of our first superstar president. Several national polls on the state of the nation show “wrong direction” leading “right track” by almost two to one while Obama is, at this stage of his presidency, the most unpopular U.S. chief executive since Richard Nixon.
A lot of those who make up what H.L. Mencken derisively referred to as “the smart set” are scratching their heads trying to come up with an explanation. Yet a drop in the polls makes sense if you believe his two national election victories represented a victory of style and symbolism over substance.
Think back. In his 2008 campaign Obama was notoriously unwilling to talk about what he would do if elected. He gave good speeches, but the reality was they offered little more than platitudes about getting things done and entering a post-partisan era that, in all candor, lasted about 38 seconds after he finished taking the oath of office.