Three Strikes?

Readers of this blog should realize that I'm not entirely enamored with the policies of President Obama. In short, I don't think his plans for peace (a mixture of hope and humility) and prosperity (gargantuan deficit spending) will work.

However, I'd be the first to admit that he is terribly smooth. He gives a great speech, he is comfortable with others, and he radiates self-confidence. By any measure, a terrific combination.

Of late, though, he seems to be losing his edge which,for Obama supporters can be a worrisome development.

Losing his perspective. To paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld, you go with the history you have, not the one you want. For better or worse, the U.S. has a long history of being entwined in Nicaraguan domestic affairs. Daniel Ortega, at the recent Americas conference, used his speaking opportunity to subject Obama to a 50 minute harangue about U.S. involvement there. Rather than defend the aims of those policies that Ortega denounced, Obama thought it was all about himself. He said, "I'm grateful that President Ortega did not blame me for the things that occurred when I was three months old." As Mark Steyn noted, it was a curious case of narcissism.

Losing his competence. In era where Carl Sagan's mantra about the heavens (billions and billions of stars) can now be used in discussing the budget, it seems a bit lame to be looking for a measly $100 million to reduce in federal spending. It's even sadder when the President seems to be in earnest about looking for these savings with a straight face. When the media begins to mock the imitative, one has to assume that it's a loser.

Losing his conviction. I think it's safe to say that the original strategy regarding torture was to cherry pick a few documents for release that would put the Bush White House in a bad light and claim that they're going to cease this activity. Moreover, to ensure that our intelligence capability would not be totally eviscerated, there would be no prosecutions of those who acted in good faith. Now it seems that Eric Holder, the Attorney Justice, and a man with a few questionable deeds in his background will determine what is prosecutable and what is not. But as flip flops go, this caught everyone in his Administration by surprise. It would be interesting to see what kind of messages Obama was getting in his ultra secret Blackberry?

A couple of odd missteps are no reason to panic. But when a pattern becomes discernible, then one has to ask -- what have I gotten into.