ny post
"Change" might be starting to shift to the other foot. The president's job-approval number remains high, but his ratings have dipped on the economy and his standing has slid among independents.
If the public turns on Obama, it won't be out of animus to him personally. People will always think him smart and charismatic -- for the simple reason that he is. Nor are they ever likely to conclude that's he's a radical or cynic. His affect is too reasonable for the first and too earnest for the second.
No, the danger is that the public will conclude that he's "a nice young man" -- talented and well-meaning, but ineffectual and a little naive.
The fight over health care will be telling. Once again, people are being asked to believe that a trillion dollars in new spending is fiscally prudent. Once again, they're being asked to believe that the government can manage an enormous, complex enterprise -- even more so than the auto companies. Once again, they're being asked by their audaciously ambitious, supremely self-confident president to suspend their disbelief.
If the public doesn't go along this time, the Obama phenomenon will have experienced the end of its heroic period.
Obama will have failed to achieve a goal he defined as of paramount importance. His accomplishments will look small compared to the vast accumulation of new debt -- especially if a rising unemployment rate continues to discredit the stimulus. Obama will seem to have been thwarted by the recalcitrance of reality, which -- amid his fine words and intentions -- he didn't factor adequately into his plans.