Why Tina Brown’s Obama Plan Will Fail

Daily Beast editor Tina Brown thinks that a good public relations plan and pretending to like the public and big business will remedy all of Obama’s woes and put him back in the good graces of the American people. You know the ones she means: the stupid ones in flyover country. Those in the progressive intellectual class will realize it’s a rouse, but in general the dimly-lit, bible-clutching, gun-bearing Americans wouldn’t be the wiser. For example, Brown says “I’d like the President to stop being so high-minded about avoiding corny symbolic theatrics and start playing to win. The absurd myth, for instance, that he's really a Muslim would be easier to knock out if he strode from the White House every Sunday with a big old Gutenberg Bible and marched his family—with the first daughters in adorable Sunday best—to the nearest Episcopalian church.” For Ms. Brown’s information Obama does play to win. His orchestrated events with its hand-picked audiences, well-placed cheering squads and phony fainting epidemics are the height of corny symbolic theatrics designed to fool the American people into thinking he is some kind of miracle worker who can transform the world with a wave of his hand. A little aside on the Muslim thing: it was Obama who wrote that the Muslim “call to prayer” was one of the most beautiful sounds he ever heard. In the Audacity of Hope he wrote: “I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.” In my view marching around Washington on Sunday morning with an over-sized Bible will not fool anyone. Also, TB is wrong on several counts: Obama has not ended torture; he just has other people do it (The Rendition Program). We are not out of Iraq and won’t be for several more years. Health care has not been extended beyond giving additional benefits to people who already have insurance. Those without it will still be waiting for several years before they get it. The claim that he prevented another Great Depression is pure speculation and based on wishful thinking, not economic reality. Finally, TB overlooks the main reasons why Obama’s policies have failed. His policies are designed to change America, not fix it. His economic policies have failed to jumpstart the economy. His foreign policy has made the world more volatile. His domestic policy choices are designed to redistribute the wealth of America’s productive citizens and give it to those he perceives as his constituents. TB may think it’s a simple as “the President has forgotten to bring the people along,” but the truth is Americans don't want the ride that is being offered.