His ability to make “liberals” look even more foolish and incoherent than usual.
Actually what Kazin’s lament makes clear is that the usual liberal cant about pragmatism is utterly insincere. It is a way for liberals to deny they are being ideological. (Jonah Goldberg beats down on this trope masterfully in The Tyranny of Cliches.) So what Kazin is really saying is that Obama is incompetent at the liberal straddle: he’s no good as an ideologue, and he’s lousy at pragmatism. His golf handicap is his only handicap that is improving in office.
Ouch.
I just wanted to add this new story. It appears that Lois Lerner’s ‘Lost’ Emails Were Backed Up
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/08/25/govt-watchdog-says-irs-lawyer-admitted-lois-lerners-lost-emails-were-backed-up/
I would suspect that Obama has just plain given up on the Presidency. His inner circle has likely conceded that the GOP will not move to impeach him in order to give the Dems any kind of bounce in the upcoming elections, and they likely are advising that his pen and phone approach to immigration will likely send a lot more voters to the GOP this fall. Bad news regarding the IRS scandal continues to trickle out, no one believes any of the official line regarding economic recovery, the press is really struggling to defend his serial vacations and golf outings, and his AG was unable to make it rain with the tragedy in Ferguson.
He likely meets only rarely with his leadership team and probably is mostly disengaged when he does. The press is no longer as interested in anything new he has to say as they are wanting more information on stuff he wants to be “old news.” It’s the perfect storm of nearly six years of events starting to catch up with an empty suit and a group of enablers that were hoping to have eight years of momentum.
Does that mean she’s been left to twist in the wind? 🙂 Oh, hi Jim.
Not twisting in the wind but a worm on a hook-of his own making.