QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 10:29 A.M. ET:  Dems are turning on each other.   From the great John Fund at NRO Online: 

Democrats are still reeling from President Obama’s statement last week that “I’m not on the ballot this fall . . . but make no mistake, these policies are on the ballot — every single one of them.” Republican attack ads are already making hay with that invitation to send Obama a message in next month’s election.

A growing number of Democrats are already speaking as if the Obama administration is a spent force, with no agenda it can reasonably implement in its last two years. “It is safe to say that Obama has been a huge disappointment,” admitted Democratic strategist Kirsten Powers on the Hugh Hewitt radio show last week. “I really don’t think there’s any comparison between him and Bill Clinton. I don’t think we’re even talking about the same universe.”

Then there’s Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a former aide to Al Gore when he created the National Performance Review of government agencies during the Clinton years. On Saturday, she explained to the Los Angeles Times her own theory for Obama’s failures:

"This administration has been disconnected from the government it’s supposed to be running. . . .

"They keep getting surprised by stuff. And the surprise is almost worse than anything else. It conveys the sense that the White House doesn’t know what its own government is doing. You can’t prevent all these problems from happening, but you can certainly get ahead of the curve on some of them. . . ."

COMMENT:  There was a time when many people wanted to cut Obama some slack because he was "the first."  This was especially true on the fashionable left.  It is still true for some.

But, increasingly, even Democrats are understanding that a president has to be president.  I mean, of the United States.  Not the world.  Or the student body.  or Martha's Vineyard.

I think many of us on our side fear what the next two years will be like.  Freed of any electoral obligations to his party, the famously disloyal Obama can go crazy, especially in foreign policy.  And he still will have the power to threaten any Democratic successor with political ruin if that candidate doesn't embrace the Obama agenda.

I believe we knew what we were getting in 2008.  We just hoped it wasn't so.  It is so.

October 6, 2014