THE “SHELLACKING” OF OBAMA

Gil Troy

The candidate who had perfect pitch in the 2008 US presidential campaign turned out to be tone deaf when he got to the White House. Appearing chastened but not contrite, as put it, by what he himself termed his “shellacking” in the midterm elections of 2010, will have an opportunity to retool as Obama 2.0 in the run-up to the 2012 presidential campaign, which has already begun. In order to succeed, writes presidential scholar Gil Troy, he will have to reconnect with the American people and find his way to the centre, where elections are won.

Le candidat qui avait trouvé la note parfaitement juste pendant la campagne présidentielle de 2008 aura perdu le ton une fois installé à la Maison-Blanche. Comme l’a dit le New York Times, le président américain est apparu « plus assagi que repentant » au lendemain des élections de mi-mandat qu’il a lui-même qualifiées de « raclée » pour son parti, mais il aura l’occasion de se configurer en Obama 2.0 en prévision de la campagne de 2012, qui est déjà en marche. Pour être réélu, croit le spécialiste de l’histoire présidentielle Gil Troy, Barack Obama devra renouer contact avec le peuple américain et se frayer un chemin jusqu’au centre de l’échiquier politique, où sont gagnées toutes les élections.

arning: ignore those headlines that called the ised to do, lead from the centre humbly and substantively, American elections a split decision, claiming the culturally and creatively. W Republicans fell short, by winning only the Republicans had such a good night that even their loss- House of Representatives and not the Senate. The American es were gains for them. Having Christine O’Donnell (“I am voters gave President Barack Obama and the Democratic not a witch”), the wrestling queen Linda McMahon and the Party a good, old-fashioned political whupping during the gaffe-prone Sharron Angle all lose their Senate bids saved 2010 midterm Congressional elections. Supporters of Barack Republicans — and the Tea Party insurgency — from much Obama, the magical messianist of 2008, were reduced to cel- mainstream media ridicule. The voters helped this still-unde- ebrating that at least they did not lose the Senate, and that fined movement clean out the clowns. Americans don’t the majority leader, , barely kept his seat. This want, as their representatives, people who seem empty or reflected a tremendous comedown as “the One” became the crazy. As ’s former speechwriter Peggy rejected one, as Mr. Yes We Can became Mr. Why Can’t Noonan warned in the Wall Street Journal: “They’ll vote no They Understand and Appreciate Me? on that. It’s not just the message, it’s the messenger.” The spinning headlines reflect the media hall of mirrors Having a serious, good-looking, patriotic new Florida that distorts so much political discussion today. The news senator, Marco Rubio, as the Tea Party poster child makes that the Republicans would recapture the House of this movement a more powerful force on the national scene. Representatives was pre-reported for so long that its shock The other leading Tea Party senator, Rand Paul from power diminished, feeding expectations of a Democratic Kentucky, is a bookish ideologue who avoided media debacle. By election night, Democrats were relieved they ridicule after initially stumbling with a Civil Rights-related had averted a worse bloodbath, reflecting how low their gaffe. “We’ve come to take our government back,” he thun- party fortunes had sunk, and just how many of them were dered on election night. “Tonight, there’s a Tea Party tidal in denial of their massive collective political failure. wave.” At the same time, O’Donnell’s initial primary victo- But the people spoke loud and clear. President Barack ry over a popular, moderate Republican Mike Castle, who Obama must learn his lesson from what even he, the probably would have won the Senate seat in Delaware, Denier-in-Chief, admitted was a political “shellacking.” To demonstrates the Tea Party’s powerful hold over the redeem his presidency, he must do what he originally prom- Republicans’ future.

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Blessed by Florida’s time zone, foonish Sarah Palins and goonish Joe Yet considering that the end of the Rubio was one of the first big winners of McCarthys subverting American democ- 2010 midterms marks the start of the election night. He took full advantage racy. But election night changed the sto- 2012 presidential campaign, Barack of his prime-time exposure, giving a ryline. The New York Times house Obama should worry about the massive moving speech that changed the Tea conservative, David Brooks, linked the abandonment of independent voters. It Party’s public face. Making his story as movement that propelled Obama into is now clear that Obama erred by fight- the son of Cuban exiles America’s story, the White House with the movement ing for health care reform before lower- he called the United States of America that helped purge more than 60 ing the unemployment rate. Obama simply the single greatest nation in all Democrats from the House of also erred by passing the governing steering wheel to Speaker The people spoke loud and clear. President Barack Obama must Nancy Pelosi and her Con- learn his lesson from what even he, the Denier-in-Chief, admitted gressional Democratic party was a political “shellacking.” To redeem his presidency, he must barons, rather than keeping the more centrist White do what he originally promised to do, lead from the centre House as the central politi- humbly and substantively, culturally and creatively. cal driver. “Usually, a politi- cal party loses when it has of human history, a place without equal Representatives. “Over the past few failed to do its job,” Time magazine’s Joe in the history of all mankind. But, he years, we have seen millions of people Klein observed. “These Democrats lost added, “we also know that something mobilize, some behind President Obama because they succeeded in doing what doesn’t seem right.” Delighting in his and others around the Tea Parties,” they’ve been promising for decades.” 20-point victory in a state that has Brooks wrote in mid-November. “The And it is now clear that having the often been famously deadlocked country is restive and looking for alter- health care reform pass by such a par- between Republicans and Democrats, natives. And before the next round of tisan, polarizing vote undermined the red and the blue, Rubio vowed to go voting begins, I suspect we will see Obama’s entire presidential leadership to Washington, DC, and “stand up to another mass movement: a movement project. The twentieth century’s two this agenda that is taking us in the of people who don’t feel represented by greatest pieces of social legislation, the wrong direction.” either of the partisan orthodoxies; a 1935 Social Security Act and the 1964 The speech was not quite as elec- movement of people who want to fun- Civil Rights Act, passed, after hard tric as Ronald Reagan’s televised 1964 damentally change the norms, institu- fights, with bipartisan support. That fundraising appeal for Barry Goldwater tions and rigidities that cause our the twenty-first century’s first great still known today as “The Speech,” or gridlock and threaten our country.” piece of social legislation passed with- Barack Obama’s 2004 Democratic out Republican support is a very omi- Convention star-turn. Rubio is more he rise of the Tea Party, the loss of nous sign. subdued than either of those citizen T many moderate Democrats in politicians who ended up in the White swing districts and the return to hile coping with an energized House. But its unvarnished red, white Congress of Reid, Nancy Pelosi and W opposition taking over the and blue nationalism offered a plat- many of their most liberal colleagues House of Representatives, and dimin- form of hope during sobering times. It led some politicos to conclude that ished Senate numbers, Barack Obama laid the groundwork for the future Americans are becoming more polar- must adjust to changes in the execu- House Speaker John Boehner’s getting ized and do not want centrist leader- tive branch too. His chief of staff Rahm choked up, as he celebrated his life ship. This conclusion reinforces the Emanuel, his National Security Adviser story as a fulfillment of “the American -MSNBC view of the world as Jim Jones, and one of his leading eco- dream.” Rubio’s win helped change the fundamentally divided between good nomic advisers Larry Summers will not narrative about the Tea Party, or more people — those who agree with me — be around to roll out Obama 2.0. These accurately the Tea Parties, as a series of and bad partisans — everybody else. and other staff changes will free populist, grassroots expressions of frus- Instead, the results reflect American Obama to resurrect one of the most tration with the Obama agenda. structural anomalies, where moderates powerful messages and most successful Throughout campaign season it was come from divided districts and tactics that emerged during his mete- difficult to get a handle on the Tea Party extremists come from strongly parti- oric rise to the presidency, his call for a phenomenon because of the partisan san districts. During electoral tidal new, reasoned centrism. media filters. Fox News treated Tea waves, the crucial swing voters veer Yet, while acknowledging his shel- Partiers like the Sons — and Daughters left or right, wiping out the moderates lacking, Barack Obama seemed — of Liberty while the New York Times and leaving the extremists enjoying remarkably resistant to learning the treated them like a dark army of buf- their grip on power. lesson of 2010. In the buildup to

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election day, as he stepped up his cam- sensitivity, fearing the many anti-black and steep fall from the hope-and- paign, he trotted out different excuses stereotypes that hover in the American change “yes we can” man of 2008. for the coming debacle. In a New York political atmosphere, like germs in the Hendrik Hertzberg lamented in the Times Magazine interview he used the recycled air of an airplane, ready to New Yorker: “In 2008, his calm was a tired excuse that he and his staff had strike the vulnerable at any moment. synergistic counterpoint to the joyous spent too much time working on poli- On Day One, Luckovich found the excitement of the throngs that packed cy and not enough time working on safe stereotype of using Obama as Mr. his rallies. In the tidy quiet isolation of politics. Democrats have long relied on Spock. The Inauguration Day cartoon the White House, his serene rationali- this excuse when they have failed to showed a Spock-like president sitting ty has felt to many like detachment, connect with the people, blaming at his desk, getting ready to fix the even indifference.” style, not substance. This kind of self- Constitution. Part of the appeal of the bama did not just It is now clear that having the health care reform pass by O promise hope and such a partisan, polarizing vote undermined Obama’s entire change, he promised a new presidential leadership project. The twentieth century’s two kind of politics. In his book greatest pieces of social legislation, the 1935 Social Security Audacity of Hope, Obama positioned himself as a Act and the 1964 Civil Rights Act, passed, after hard fights, postpartisan centrist who with bipartisan support. That the twenty-first century’s first would resist Washington’s great piece of social legislation passed without Republican ways. Central to his appeal support is a very ominous sign. was his lyrical, multicultur- al nationalism, exemplified righteous posturing is starting to feed Spock image was that the cartoonist by his eloquent denunciation of the an anti-Barack backlash. exaggerated Obama’s ears, staying red-state-blue-state paradigm when he Next, echoing his infamous (but away, to be candid, from the nose and gave that extraordinary keynote in those days rare) gaffe from the 2008 lips, which have been the traditional speech at the 2004 Democratic nation- campaign describing social conserva- targets for racist caricature. al convention. Americans did not just tives and gun owners as bitter, Obama Whereas in January 2009 the hire Obama to be president, they hired offended many by suggesting that fear Spock-like image telegraphed a super- him to be that kind of a president, one and frustration drive voters. Leaders human sense of competence, calm and who would reach out across the aisle, need to lead. Losing leaders need to logic, today that same image who would sing a song of national take stock and not fingerpoint, blam- telegraphs a sense of cluelessness and unity and purpose that was substan- ing the people for not having the judg- arrogance. One cartoon has Obama as tive, pragmatic, results-oriented, not ment to follow. Spock, holding the globe in his hand, just lofty and lovely. Obama’s obfuscations play into saying “Nowhere am I so desperately Unfortunately, as president, one of the great fears about him per- needed as among a shipload of illogi- Obama has stilled his own voice and sonally. Having risen so quickly, hav- cal humans.” A second image ricochet- failed to reconcile with Republicans. ing been such a golden boy at Harvard ing around the Internet has a True, Republicans share responsibility Law, in the US Senate, during the 2008 Photoshopped Obama with Spock ears for being truculent and obstructionist. campaign, can he learn from his mis- and a Star Trek uniform thinking, “I But true centrism requires finding that takes? Increasingly, even Democrats wish Jim would get back. I have no golden path, that middle ground. criticized his know-it-all vibe and his idea how to run this ship.” Uhura is Instead of delegating the highly parti- apparent lack of empathy. rolling her eyes. san Congress to craft the health care Obama’s descent can be charted Given America’s depressing histo- reform, instead of negotiating so des- by following how he has been carica- ry of racism, there is something cosmi- perately to forge his Democratic coali- tured. When Obama was first elected, cally fabulous about having America’s tion, Obama needed to deliver his nearly flawless campaign, the first African-American president bipartisan support for such a monu- euphoria his election triggered and his accused of elitism. But there is some- mental shift in America’s status quo. racial identity intimidated cartoonists thing sobering about a leader running The social security and civil rights bills and comedians. The Pulitzer Prize-win- a country with 9.6 percent unemploy- quickly became part of the national ning cartoonist Mike Luckovich admit- ment unable to convey empathy or consensus, thanks to the consensus- ted that they simply did not know solve the problem. By the end of his building presidential leadership that how to draw him and what to mock “Don’t Blame Me” pre-election tour, ensured bipartisan passage. By con- about him. Underlying the question, Obama was not even able to fill an trast, has festered as an issue especially for cartoonists, was a racial arena in Cleveland, an ominous sign for decades because the Supreme Court

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CP Photo US President Barack Obama, chastened but not contrite, at a White House news conference on November 3, the morrow of what he himself called “a shellacking” of the Democrats in the midterm congressional elections.

legalized women’s right to choose, cir- I was struck by the violent distortions ing America.” Why is it that we need- cumventing any kind of populist, con- of the cable echo chamber. Politicians ed a comedian to confront the Crossfire sensus building. who spend their time appearing on crowd and no politician had the guts Obama showed great potential as a these shows forget that only a small to reject this and other formats that cultural leader in 2008; perhaps it is percentage of Americans are watching. foster fighting, that reward unreason? time for him to take the lead in fight- The pols begin to think that everyone Franklin Roosevelt said the presidency ing the gong-show governance ema- wants to shout about politics. What if is preeminently a place of moral nating from cable TV coverage of politicians stopped appearing on leadership. Obama should take the American politics. Watching MSNBC shout-TV? lead with substantive moves to cut on election night, watching Keith Back in 2004, when comedian Jon down the culture of confrontation. Olbermann and company shout away Stewart appeared on CNN’s polarizing In this time of great national and at Congressman Eric Cantor, who show Crossfire, he confronted its hosts, international stress, Obama has to find enjoyed giving back as good as he got, begging: “Stop, stop, stop, stop hurt- the right tone to strike. This may have

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been the successful Tea Party candi- problem stems from miscommunica- not just spend two years warming up dates’ greatest success. Taking a page tion and not substantive policy differ- for the presidential campaign. Ameri- from the Ronald Reagan playbook, ences will lead him and his staff to ca’s problems are too sobering. If the Rubio, Paul and others were able to focus on how things appear rather Republican Party and its Tea Party channel American anger into electoral than what they should be. The elder firebrands can take the lead on reduc- action by tapping into traditional statesman Dean Acheson once dis- ing the deficit responsibly, they could American pride and grand national missed Richard Nixon by comparing resurrect the Reagan Revolution most ambition. In 2008, Senator Obama him to a shortstop who is so con- people declared dead on Election found the right alchemy in fighting cerned about how he looks when Night 2008. against President George W. Bush, fielding, he misses the ball. Obama advocating a return to national ideal- has always struggled with a grandiose bama still has the time, and ism. As president, Obama seems too and highly self-conscious side. In this O believe it or not the national cowed by the scale of the problems, fight for his political future, he needs good will, to recover. Most Republican and, by now, the fact that he is per- to focus on substance and on cultivat- campaign commercials targeted Nancy ceived to be responsible for them. As a ing the big-tent governance he prom- Pelosi or Harry Reid or Big result, his attempts to appear opti- ised the American people. Government, rather than the presi- mistic increasingly appear delusional. In the 1950s, Josef Stalin dis- dent personally. This nuance reflected In fairness, Americans are in a par- missed Mao Zedong as a Margarine Obama’s personal popularity, despite ticularly nasty mood. After the election, Communist. It was a delicious phrase, his 55 percent negative job approval when the bipartisan commission capturing the gruff former farm boy’s rating. Moreover, the economy could chaired by the Democrat Erskine disgust for a product that looked like still revive, unemployment could start Bowles and the Republican Alan to drop, the Republicans could Simpson offered suggestions to Obama has to adapt and overcome. self-destruct by misreading this cut the budget, critics immedi- Political greatness, in fact personal election as an invitation to ately questioned their motives showcase their extremists. and mocked them rather than greatness, does not come from Perhaps most comforting engaging their ideas. Paul Krug- winning all the time, but from of all to Obama is the fact that man in the New York Times knowing how to turn devastating no president since Herbert claimed that the bipartisan com- defeats into incredible opportunities. Hoover has lost a re-election mission had been hijacked on bid unless he faced a primary behalf of an ideological agenda, The true test of Barack Obama the revolt first. Gerald Ford had to namely the same old, same old man and the president has begun. contend with Ronald Reagan tax cuts for the rich. “Doesn’t in 1976, then lost. Jimmy Bowles-Simpson sound a lot like a med- butter, but wasn’t. So far, Obama has Carter fought off Ted Kennedy, then ical procedure?” Krugman’s colleague been a Margarine Moderate, making lost. And George H.W. Bush fought Gail Collins chimed in, mimicking superficial gestures toward dialogue off Pat Buchanan, then lost. With no Maureen Dowd’s mission to substitute and compromise, then sticking to one obvious Democratic challenger on the punch lines for political analysis. “Or a side of the aisle. horizon, Obama can rest easy, so far. really high-end vacuum cleaner?” In fairness, the Republicans must Still, Obama has to adapt and All this cynicism and nastiness take some responsibility too. When overcome. Political greatness, in fact takes its toll. Commenting on the by they took over the Congress in 1994, personal greatness, does not come now ritual wave of negative advertise- the Republicans proved to be far bet- from winning all the time, but from ments during the election, Peggy ter at blocking, investigating, harass- knowing how to turn devastating Noonan summarized the last three ing and accusing than governing. By defeats into incredible opportunities. decades of increasingly harsh cam- 1998, their overzealousness in prose- The true test of Barack Obama the man paign commercials by suggesting that cuting Bill Clinton during the and the president has begun. the biggest long-term loser in all this is Monica Lewinsky scandal backfired. liberalism. “If all pols are sleazoid During the midterm elections that Gil Troy is professor of history at McGill crooks, then why would people want year, they became the first party out University and a visiting scholar at the to give them more governmental of power since 1934 to fail to win any Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, power to order our lives? The implicit new congressional seats in the DC. He is the author, most recently, of message of two generations of negative midterm, and the first party out of Leading from the Center: Why ads: Vote conservative.” power since 1822 to fail to win any Moderates Make the Best Presidents Obama also has to avoid presi- seats for the final two years of a pres- and Ronald Reagan: A Very Short dential preening. His claim that his ident’s second term. Republicans can- Introduction.

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