Meltdown … mask slipping … choose your metaphor

Baracky O. and the Dems seem to be engaged in their own equivalent of (here comes another metaphor) a prolonged, Howard Dean-like scream.

Which has led to a situation where the respected, centrist-liberal pundit Charlie Cook says:

The situation this summer has slipped completely out of control for President Obama and Congressional Democrats.

An analysis which, if you think people’s facial expressions and body language signify anything, finds support in the uncharacteristically edgy, stressed-out looking, almost Nixonian Obama in this photo:

Where is the cool cat of yesteryear?

Or, keeping the Nixon metaphor in mind, perhaps I should change the photo caption to:

“I am not a socialist.”

The item comes from Politico:

August 20, 2009
Charlie Cook: Dem situation has ‘slipped completely out of control’

Charlie Cook, one of the best political handicappers in the business, sent out a special update to Cook Political Report subscribers Thursday that should send shivers down Democratic spines.

Reviewing recent polling and the 2010 election landscape, Cook can envision a scenario in which Democratic House losses could exceed 20 seats.

“These data confirm anecdotal evidence, and our own view, that the situation this summer has slipped completely out of control for President Obama and Congressional Democrats. Today, The Cook Political Report’s Congressional election model, based on individual races, is pointing toward a net Democratic loss of between six and 12 seats, but our sense, factoring in macro-political dynamics is that this is far too low,” he wrote.

“Many veteran Congressional election watchers, including Democratic ones, report an eerie sense of dejà vu, with a consensus forming that the chances of Democratic losses going higher than 20 seats is just as good as the chances of Democratic losses going lower than 20 seats.”

Cook scrupulously avoided any mention that Democratic control of the House is in jeopardy but, noting a new Gallup poll showing Congress’ job disapproval at 70 percent among independents, concluded that the post-recess environment could feel considerably different than when Congress left in August.

“We believe it would be a mistake to underestimate the impact that this mood will have on Members of Congress of both parties when they return to Washington in September, if it persists through the end of the Congressional recess.”

- end of initial entry -

Stephen T. writes:

I always thought the first thing to go in the Obama mystique would be his “youthful cool.” All it would take to make him chronologically correct would be one episode of appearing embattled in a middle-aged, Nixon-like way. Definitely not the image of the hip, twenty-something guy you’d be likely to meet strolling across the campus holding hands with Michelle. It was an inexplicable thing, anyway, given that his undergrad years are fully a quarter of a century behind him and he’s actually older than my parents were when I was in college—whom frankly I didn’t perceive as “young and cool” back then.

What will go next? Those well-sculpted pectoral muscles (and the Vanity Fair “sex-symbol” photo ops?)

Stephen T. writes:

Do you have any prediction as to how a total Waterloo on Obamacare might affect the prospects of amnesty for illegal aliens, sure to come up at some point in this administration?

Does it (a) lessen the chances of amnesty passing, the president having finally lost his mask of boy-wonder invincibility (at age 48) or (b) make it more likely that democrats will conclude, “We bailed on the president on health care, now as loyal democrats we’ve GOT to unite behind him and support amnesty so he won’t be a total failure and our party won’t be discredited”—and then vote in a solid majority to approve it?

LA replies:

I don’t know. All I know is, we must stop both. Let the other side worry about their motives and desires.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at August 21, 2009 09:35 AM | Send