Obama, The Gift That Keeps Giving?

We have seen the missteps and the successes of the Obama administration. We have seen the worst, seemingly having each “accomplishment” being worse and worse than the previous one. The country is now subject to a namesake piece of legislation, in Obamacare, and we have seen Obama’s revolving door of big-government, tax-and-spend Keynesians spin like a dynamo.

We have seen the confident Obama boast that, “We won” when talking about his party, and their misreading of elections results. Most recently, the country has seen the administration’s misunderstanding of the Middle East, and their finger-pointing ability when they sought to make the Benghazi fiasco go away. We were witness to a massive fall in the president’s support among his former voters too (although it was not enough to overcome the lack of support for Mitt Romney among conservatives).

So, how does all this make Obama a hero of the right? Simply, he has given us on the right ample opportunity to call him on the carpet, to point to his lackadaisical leadership style, and undermine his party’s claims that the right is the party of the corporations and “big money”. At times, Obama seems like a political version of the “Teflon Don”, John Gotti – nothing seems to stick to the guy.

So, what has happened? All these opportunities for the right, and a shrinking advantage in Congress, and a lost presidency, are all we have to show from Obama’s continual failures. Excused away were things that would have sunk a Nixon, a Reagan, even a Bill Clinton presidency, and they were lost amid a maelstrom of personnel shuffling, which the administration claims is their holding people responsible.

Forget a president who goes through so many people so quickly, any anonymous person who acted as Obama does would have no friends left at this point. Obama has thrown Susan Rice, Hillary Clinton, and even his own grandmother, under various buses. There is no end to his cadre of useful idiots. New scandal? New idiots.

If it were not for his left-wing charisma, which holds his supporters hanging on his every word, Obama’s election would have gone to Mitt Romney. The media, who not only parrots Obama’s words, also happily defends him from critical guests on talk shows and news channels. Soledad O’Brien, Piers Morgan, and others, not only defend his administration’s mistakes, but in Soledad’s case, attempt to give Obama excuses and explanation for former associations with racists and terrorists.

So – with the overwhelming evidence of media collusion, associations with enemies of the state, and other tawdry actions – how on the earth is he a hero to the right? Simply put, he has given the right everything it could hope for, to ensure landslide elections in both 2014 and 2016. Having involvement with his administration has tainted virtually everyone with a sort of “stain of Obama”.

Obama has either forced Congressmen to swallow bitter pills (as with Obamacare), or he has outed them as having agendas that run counter to their constituents’ concerns. The issues that cost Democrats Congressional seats in the 2010 elections may still have juice that can be wrested from them – especially after Americans saw their paychecks affected by mainly left-wing budget issues. Receipts showing Obamacare’s new medical excise taxes have popped up online too, posted by people angry at already tight purse-strings becoming tighter. The American people have finally begun showing an interest and concern regarding the way their government is functioning (or malfunctioning).

The Republicans may have never had it so good. They seem to only have the media to overcome (which I will agree is a giant mountain to climb). For anyone paying attention, the Obama-touch is enough for them to vote for any candidate who is not Obama or Obama endorsed. We saw in the last election how cool Democratic candidates were to an Obama endorsement.

The ways that the right must capitalize are threefold:

1.  Stop allowing the talk show circuit to reframe subjects and terms. The right seems to fail more and more on this subject. The effects of ignoring the media’s word-redefining-ways last long beyond the initial interviews, stretching at times into month-long disasters. Adding to that the fact that if a GOP candidate verbally missteps, and his footage recycled repeatedly, and the Republicans not only weaken the current campaign, they accept the dings that the gaffe provides for any future campaigns as well. That means that the candidate’s campaign is over before it takes off. If solving this means giving a week-long class on oratory and rhetoric for prospective candidates – do it. The pay off will show such actions as invaluable. Call the left-wing fear mongers exactly what they are, and reiterate that America’s had enough scaring in place of actual results/budgets/legislation.
2. Make the products of the current administration and current candidates very personal. The aforementioned excise tax? Use that receipt as a prop for all budget talks. Make it as conspicuous as a pocket Constitution. Make it plain for all Americans to understand they do have skin in the game, and that the left wants even more. Pin that receipt and those small, numerous taxes on the left. Make it their brand. Paint the left as the never satiated, taxing, spending, over-bearing beast that it is. When the left attempts to re-frame the argument that “only certain income levels are effected”, fire back with more questions intended to build your own point on the sarcastic  order of, “…like this year’s taxes only affected a few people?” Put the skills that the politicians learned in tactic one to good use.
3. Finally, as much as possible, have the GOP stress how disastrous conservatives staying home on election day was for the last election. If it evolves to nothing more than a massive guilt trip, place much of the onus for the next four years’ policy in the laps of people who stayed home instead of voting in November, 2012. After so much work to unseat Congressmen who voted contrary to Tea Party, libertarian, and other conservatives ‘ concerns, to have sat home on Election Day, with an opportunity to unseat the most progressive president of our lifetimes, was a tremendous overestimation of the gains made. It was akin to driving with a pedal through the floorboards, and expecting to coast successfully for the final 1/2 lap.

So, reviewing quickly, that is “enunciate, elaborate, and motivate”. The right has no excuse remaining for faltering at this point. Right-wing voters must get over the party in-fighting (which should have evaporated with the revelations of just how far Obama leans to the left). They must get over the one issue that they have a firm, unrelenting hold of, the one sticking issue that prevents them from getting off their duffs and voting, so that they may actually win the positions in government that would allow issues to be changed. And before you think that is a poor way to manage a movement, or it sound impossible to sustain such measures – look at the deluge of awful legislation and regulation we have seen from the organized left in four short years.