White House insiders say President Barack Obama is in “a funk” about what he sees as increasing stagnation and failures surrounding his second term and some worry that the President is becoming more distant and distracted.
“He’s not the same Obama that came to the Oval Office after the 2008 elections,” a senior White House aided confided to friends in an email recently. “I’m worried.”
Chicago Mayor and former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel tells friends that the Presidency has changed his longtime friend Obama and many of those changes are “not good.”
“Rahm is obviously worried,” a former White House aide tells Capitol Hill Blue.
Political advisers say the charismatic candidate who captured the attention of voters in 2008 is gone and the man who now occupies the White House is “a shell who lacks charisma and cannot focus on details or message.”
“We have to face the fact that it has been a long, long time since Barack Obama delivered a speech that captured the hearts and minds,” says Democratic strategist Andy Waring. “The magic is missing and the Obama that mesmerized the nation has left the building.”
With his signature health care “reform” lagging, facing delays and increasingly raising concern, Democrats worry that Obama’s problems could have a ripple effect in next-year’s midterm elections and prospects for retaining control of the White House in 2016.
Many point to former first lady, senator and secretary of state Hillary Clinton as the party’s best prospect for Presidency but also she also concerns Democrats who see her tenure in the Obama cabinet as a political drawback.
“It is interesting, don’t you think, that the best Democratic hope for the White House in 2016 is a candidate who lost to the current, beleaguered President in primaries in 2008,” says political adviser Sally Angle.
Political setbacks ans scandals have taken their toll on Obama’s approval ratings and questionable actions like those in the recent scandal on spying of Americans by the National Security Agency in a program both approved and promoted by the President has deepened public anger and skepticism.
Some say the President once viewed as a “viable and preferred” alternative to the unpopular and despised George W. Bush may end his two terms in office just as unpopular and distrusted as the man he replaced.
“In politics it is not unusual for the candidate to be different once he or she is elected to office,” says political scientist Jackson Hathaway, “but Barack Obama turned out to be more than different. The candidate and President were not only different people, they turned out to be diametrically opposed to each other.”
The problem, Hathaway says, is that Obama the candidate ran as a someone strongly opposed to Bush and Obama the President “turned out to be more like Bush than anyone ever suspected.”
Privately, many Democrats agree and some say that the National Security Agency spying scandal proved that the man who ran for office as an alternative to George W. Bush turned out to be “more Bush than Bush.”
19 thoughts on “Distracted, distant Obama worries Democrats, White House aides”
Awwww – Maybe Sir Golfsalot needs another vacation…. Cry me a river…
“The problem, Hathaway says, is that Obama the candidate ran as a someone strongly opposed to Bush and Obama the President “turned out to be more like Bush than anyone ever suspected.”
On the contrary, I called it even before Obama won in 2008. That an Obama presidency would be like a third Bush term. It turned out to be like a third and fourth Bush term.
Well, we will never know what kind of President, Obama would have made. Since he was elected, Republicans have resisted anything and everything he has tried to do and they did it as a stated policy. Even Senator Mitch McConnell stated it was his job to make Obama a one term President, well guess he failed there.
I have no problems with the Republican position on the debt and deficit they do need to be controlled and reduced. However, Republicans refuse to compromise, they act like petulant children, and most sadly have forgotten just who they serve, swearing oaths to Grover Norquist.
I agree with SDRSr. There is too much money being spent to elect any politician these days and they are all owned by their Big time donors. I see little difference in the 2 major parties, but it would have been nice to have been able to see what Pres.Obama might have done without all of the Republican obstructionism.
I don’t see how one could lay Obama’s failures at the feet of Republicans.
Which Republicans forced him to push the Affordable Care Act?
Which Republicans forced him to maintain an assassination list?
Which Republicans made the NSA capture all Internet and telephone communications?
Mind you I’m not saying Republicans don’t deserve equal blame for the state of affairs our country is in, but Obama’s major failures stem from his failure to uphold his oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution.
……a ‘community organizer’ who voted mostly present while an Illinois senator.
Won his 1st presidential election because of overwhelming hype, and lack of a background check.
Won his 2nd election because of ”irregularities” involving IRS & DOJ.
He is not and never has been Presidential.
Just a ‘pretty face’ put forward by the chicago political machine.
The USofA will recover
Here’s an alternative theory: The president hasn’t changed. Those of us who viewed “the charismatic candidate” in 2008 as largely a media creation and regarded the real Barack Obama a man woefully unsuited, unprepared and unqualified for the office he sought were right.
So right Sukie. We’ve elected many mediocre leaders from both parties over the history of our Republic but we’ve never elected a man with fewer leadership qualifications than Obama. He simply has no clue how to hire qualified people, how to manage and lead them, nor does he have a clue how to project the power of the presidency in the world at large which, by the way, craves American leadership. Let us never elect someone again on the basis of the color of their skin but on the content of their character. Thank you Martin Luther King.
If the President is anything other than a shill meant to kick the can down the road for his corporate handlers I’ll eat my hat. This onetime supporter knew the dream was dead when he refused to prosecute bush/cheney and the war profiteers on Wall st.His work has been business as usual for the 1% which spells doom for America and the other 99%.
Historians have two equally matched bookends bush/obama, to showcase the last 16 yr’s of epic greed and incompetence. Beyond the dreams of avarice soon to be a best seller.. America goodbye..
You know what told me Obama was a turkey? It was when he went along with “TARP”. Right away I said to myself, and this guy calls himself a democrat. My gut responce was, youv’e got to be kidding me!
Right then and there in his first term, I knew he was not going to do any good for the country.
Excuse me, but your reference to a singular scandal vastly misstates bho’s current state of distraction. With the Benghazi cover-up and related CIA gun running blowing up in his face, his criminal use of the IRS, FEC, and God knows what other federal agencies to target political opponents, his spying on reporters, the implosion of obamacare, the rotten economy, increased terrorist threats, etc. etc. who wouldn’t be distracted? Had he just stuck with being unqualified and incompetent, perhaps he might have caught a break. But bringing the corruption and gangster government playbook from chicago, he’s finished.
Right on the nailhead Reilly! Only you left out Fast and Furious! My dog would make a better president. Why his approval rating is even in the forties is a mystery to me, even given a sycophantic media!
Long term drug use by Obama described in his book has had the effect of his inability to focus.
What does one expect when 92% of his administration has no business experience, when the vast majority of his administration hates the military, when he allows members of the Muslim Brotherhood to have major roles in foreign policy. What does one expect when Obama looks in the mirror every night and says, “How do I get out of this mess”?
this often happens to “empty suits.” they’re exposed for lack of substance, shown to be an illusion and poof! the party is over.
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