The Obama team must know that they can’t prevail solely with a negative assault on Mitt Romney, but really, what is the positive case?
Ordering the mission to kill Osama bin Laden isn’t a case; it could be an important element of a larger argument about his stewardship if it connected to anything larger. But he hasn’t done that, and it’s hard to see where it fits in.
There’s an element of bad political luck here for the president, especially when it comes to Europe. And he’s just not used to bad political luck.
In 2004, running for US Senate in Illinois, he got an enormously lucky break when an unprecedented judicial ruling made public some ugliness from child-custody proceedings that caused his strong Republican rival, Jack Ryan, to withdraw and left Obama to face an absurd GOP challenger.
In 2008, he enjoyed good fortune in the Democratic primaries in large measure due to the shocking incompetence of Hillary Clinton’s political team, which didn’t actually understand the rules governing delegate selection. Winning the presidency with three years of national political experience under his belt was probably the luckiest event in the history of American politics.
He needs a lucky break of some kind between now and November. Hard to say what it could be, since it would by definition be unexpected. But without it, he’s not going to win a second term.
Not under these conditions.
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinio..._is_case_G2XmxRTEFv1ieifcFmAs3O#ixzz1wZ7BEmD7
Ordering the mission to kill Osama bin Laden isn’t a case; it could be an important element of a larger argument about his stewardship if it connected to anything larger. But he hasn’t done that, and it’s hard to see where it fits in.
There’s an element of bad political luck here for the president, especially when it comes to Europe. And he’s just not used to bad political luck.
In 2004, running for US Senate in Illinois, he got an enormously lucky break when an unprecedented judicial ruling made public some ugliness from child-custody proceedings that caused his strong Republican rival, Jack Ryan, to withdraw and left Obama to face an absurd GOP challenger.
In 2008, he enjoyed good fortune in the Democratic primaries in large measure due to the shocking incompetence of Hillary Clinton’s political team, which didn’t actually understand the rules governing delegate selection. Winning the presidency with three years of national political experience under his belt was probably the luckiest event in the history of American politics.
He needs a lucky break of some kind between now and November. Hard to say what it could be, since it would by definition be unexpected. But without it, he’s not going to win a second term.
Not under these conditions.
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinio..._is_case_G2XmxRTEFv1ieifcFmAs3O#ixzz1wZ7BEmD7
