by Today’s quote of the day comes from historian and classicist Victor Davis Hanson. To my mind, Hanson is one of the most astute observers in America.
From his post in the National Review Online entitled “A Presidency Squandered” in which he discusses all the advantages and goodwill that Barack Obama had going for him when he entered office in 2009.
And what happened?
Barack Obama chose to ram down the nation’s throat a polarizing,
statist agenda, energized by the sort of hardball politics he had
learned in Chicago. Rather than bring the races, classes, and genders
together, he gave us an us-versus-them crusade against the “1
percenters” and the job creators who had not “paid their fair share,”
accusations of a Republican “war on women,” and the worst racial
polarization in modern memory. Statesmanship degenerated into chronic
blame-gaming and “Bush did it,” as he piled up over $5 trillion in new
debt. Financial sobriety was abandoned in favor of creating new
entitlement constituencies, and job creation was deemed far less
important than nationalizing the health-care system.
And so here we are, three weeks before the election, with a
squandered presidency and a president desperately seeking reelection not
by defending his record, but by demonizing his predecessor, his
opponent — and half of the country.
What, then, was Obama’s first term?
Jimmy Carter’s ends justifying Richard Nixon’s means.
That is indeed a bad combination – Carter’s ineffectiveness combined with Nixon’s paranoia and viciousness. God help us if he is returned for a second term.