So what went wrong? According to Barack Obama, the problem is he overestimated you dumb rubes' ability to appreciate what he's been doing for you. "That I do think is a mistake of mine," the president told ABC's George Stephanopoulos. "I think the assumption was if I just focus on policy, if I just focus on this provision or that law or if we're making a good rational decision here, then people will get it."
But you schlubs aren't that smart. You didn't get it. And Barack Obama is determined to see that you do. So the president has decided that he needs to start "speaking directly to the American people."
Wait, wait! Come back! Don't all stampede for the hills! He only gave (according to CBS News's Mark Knoller) 158 interviews and 411 speeches in his first year. That's more than any previous president -- and maybe more than all of them put together. But there may still be some show out there that didn't get its exclusive Obama interview -- I believe the top-rated Grain & Livestock Prices Report -- 4 a.m. Update with Herb Torpormeister on WZZZ-AM, Dead Buzzard Gulch Junction's Newstalk Leader, is still waiting to hear back from the White House.
But what will the president be saying in all these extra interviews? In that interview about how he hadn't given enough interviews, he also explained to George Stephanopoulos what that wacky Massachusetts election was all about:
"The same thing that swept Scott Brown into office swept me into office," said Obama. "People are angry and they're frustrated, not just because of what's happened in the last year or two years but what's happened over the last eight years."
Got it. People are so angry and frustrated at George W. Bush that they're voting for Republicans. In Massachusetts. Boy, I can't wait for that 159th interview.
Presumably, the president isn't stupid enough actually to believe what he said. But it's dispiriting to discover he's stupid enough to think we're stupid enough to believe it.... |