Fred Barnes thinks that Obama and his much-vaunted "brain trust" have hit the panic button. Obama was struggling even before the AIG kerfuffle came to light, but as Barnes points out:
What goes on in Washington usually comes across as background noise to the public, but not this time. Bonuses for AIG executives are like the infamous Bridge to Nowhere--an issue that's broken through outside Washington.
Obama's opponents now have a concrete issue, something tangible, something that they can grab hold of and clobber the president with.
The AIG issue is further proof that Obama is losing the image wars. With better PR, he could have turned the issue to his advantage: those greedy CEOs are at it again! I'm sure the American people would have been more than willing to take another whack at that long-dead horse.
Instead, it rebounded on Obama's head, and we're finally seeing Mr. Cool. During the campaign, we were told over and over again how "calm" and "levelheaded" Obama was, how he would never lose his grip in a crisis. John McCain was the crazy one, and Obama the cool one.
The crisis is here. Let's see if Obama can get back on his feet.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment