COP: Triumphalism was his undoing

William A. Jacobson  

As the sham sales pitch and flumoxed policy behind Obamacare are exposed the attempts to portray opposition as a reaction to Obama’s race are ramping up with renewed vigor.

Yet the evidence is becoming more clear that it is not race that is the problem, it’s Obama.

Fouad Adjami has a perceptive column (h/t Hot Air), When the Obama Magic Died:

A nemesis awaited the promise of this new presidency: Mr. Obama would turn out to be among the most polarizing of American leaders. No, it wasn’t his race, as Harry Reid would contend, that stirred up the opposition to him. It was his exalted views of himself, and his mission. The sharp lines were sharp between those who raised his banners and those who objected to his policies.

America holds presidential elections, we know. But Mr. Obama took his victory as a plebiscite on his reading of the American social contract. A president who constantly reminded his critics that he had won at the ballot box was bound to deepen the opposition of his critics.

A leader who set out to remake the health-care system in the country, a sixth of the national economy, on a razor-thin majority with no support whatsoever from the opposition party, misunderstood the nature of democratic politics. An election victory is the beginning of things, not the culmination.

It started long before Obamacare.  It started at the earliest point in Obama’s presidency, the Stimulus.