When Reality Becomes Real

In his latest article "The President's Reality Problem," Rich Lowry offers an astute analysis of the Obama Administration. His basic argument is that the root cause of the President's failure is a lack of reality. Pres. Obama, since the beginning of his campaign, has propagated dozens of unrealistic promises and policies, and we are now witnessing the harsh effects of reality.

One of Lowry's better examples is his analysis of the "post-partisanship" that Obama espoused on the campaign. Pres. Obama, throughout his campaign, was able to inspire and excite millions of American's with his stated commitment to post-partisanship. However, when he entered the White House, he was quickly forced to make a choice: become post-partisan and allow the Republicans to take part in policy-making, or remain partisan and fight for his liberal objectives.

In other words, during the campaign Pres. Obama preached an imaginary reality: that he could be both post-partisan and completely liberal. The history of the Obama Administration in 2009 is simply the tale of an Administration trying to deny reality. He tried to pass liberal health care reform, and bemoaned the lack of bipartisan support. He proposed a deficit of 1 trillion dollars, and was seemingly surprised by the right-wing's opposition. It is only within the past several months that Obama has finally been forced to make his choice. When faced with the prospect of seeing all of his largest policies fail, he chose to become a Democratic partisan. Reality forced him to give up his campaign imaginations.

Pres. Obama is not the only American who is going to have to face reality over the next few months. In 2008, a large percentage of the 70 million Americans that voted for him refused to acknowledge his left-wing record and clung to his promises of "post-partisanship." Perhaps Pres. Obama's recent astronomical drop in the polls is due to these voters realizing the fact that Pres. Obama is not a moderate, but a liberal. Reality had the last laugh.

I would definitely recommend that everyone read the entirety of Lowry's article. Lowry gives several other interesting examples of Pres. Obama's denial of reality. It sheds light on the fundamental dichotomy of Obama's presidency.