Krauthammer: “Don’t Underestimate Barack Obama” (And Sarah Palin Agrees)

by Jocelyn Rousey | 1:07 pm, July 17th, 2010

» 21 comments

Lately, the media has been eating up the doom and gloom projections for Democrats in the November 2010 election, so much so that you kind of have to wonder to what degree it might be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Ironically, however, conservative Charles Krauthammer predicts a not-so-gloomy future for Obama and the Democratic Party, regardless (and maybe even because of) what will likely happen in November.

The most interesting part of Krauthammer’s column in the Washington Post is the extent to which he portrays Pres. Barack Obama as a force to be reckoned with. Krauthammer clearly doesn’t agree with what Obama has spent his first year and a half in office doing, but he acknowledges the historic nature of Obama’s presidency and warns Republicans, in no uncertain terms, “Don’t underestimate Barack Obama.”

Krauthammer compares Obama’s presidency to Reagan’s, noting that “both presidencies were highly ideological, grandly ambitious and often underappreciated by their own side.” And while Obama has come under fire from critics on both sides of political spectrum, Krauthammer argues that these critics are actually missing the big picture.

Obama’s transformational agenda is a play in two acts.

Act One is over. The stimulus, Obamacare, financial reform have exhausted his first-term mandate. It will bear no more heavy lifting. And the Democrats will pay the price for ideological overreaching by losing one or both houses, whether de facto or de jure. The rest of the first term will be spent consolidating these gains (writing the regulations, for example) and preparing for Act Two.

For Obama to fulfill the remainder of his agenda, he’ll need to win a second term. And here’s the kicker. As Krauthammer sees it, letting the Republicans win control of either or both houses this November might actually benefit Obama (and Democrats) in the following 2012 election.

If Democrats lose control of one or both houses, Obama will probably have an easier time in 2012, just as Bill Clinton used Newt Gingrich and the Republicans as the foil for his 1996 reelection campaign.

Over the past few months, news and political analysis has been remarkably focused on the short term, concerned mostly with how this or that event will play out in the November elections. There has been comparatively less attention given to what could happen if the supposed inevitable Republican resurgence comes to pass, let alone what that could mean for future elections. Krauthammer’s foresight, then, is what makes this column particularly interesting.

It also, incidentally, makes Sarah Palin‘s Twitter endorsement of Krauthammer’s column ever so slightly amusing. The shared Tea Party and Republican rallying cry that November is a “referendum on Obama” is, after all, a rather short sighted game plan.

charles krauthammer, november 2010 elections, Sarah Palin, Washington Post

Azarkhan

“Over the past few months, news and political analysis has been remarkably focused on the short term”

Agreed. Below are the long term costs of having Democratic Party rule, as laid out by Krauthammer.

“But Obama’s most far-reaching accomplishment is his structural alteration of the U.S. budget. The stimulus, the vast expansion of domestic spending, the creation of ruinous deficits as far as the eye can see are not easily reversed.

These are not mere temporary countercyclical measures. They are structural deficits because, as everyone from Obama on down admits, the real money is in entitlements, most specifically Medicare and Medicaid. But Obamacare freezes these out as a source of debt reduction. Obamacare’s $500 billion in Medicare cuts and $600 billion in tax increases are siphoned away for a new entitlement — and no longer available for deficit reduction.

The result? There just isn’t enough to cut elsewhere to prevent national insolvency. That will require massive tax increases — most likely a European-style value-added tax. Just as President Ronald Reagan cut taxes to starve the federal government and prevent massive growth in spending, Obama’s wild spending — and quarantining health-care costs from providing possible relief — will necessitate huge tax increases.”
BlackWidow

Yes, and if all that happens the rich peoples world will end. So sad.
chatmandu002

After securing the minority vote with the AZ SB 1070 lawsuit, Obama’s next move it to sway 5% of the independent vote in certain districts and states to retain democrat control of congress. He will do this through the use of unspent stimulus funds in certain districts. His attacks on republicans and other groups(tea party), which is being assisted by the liberal MSM outlets, will increase as the mid-term elections approach.

All he needs is a 5% swing of the independent voters in a few districts to maintain control of congress and continue pushing his agenda.
Big_F-ing_Deal

Klaus Kraut-Himmler is right.

Barack is just getting warmed up.
yweston

M00siah agrees with Krauthammer. I guess she’s finally coming out of the st00per Rethugs put her in by “praising” her HOTNESS all day. While Pres. Obama was passing sweeping REFORM Bills.
http://debunkerhill.com CatM

Of course Sarah Palin “agrees” with Krauthammer. All she can do is agree or disagree with people. She’s incapable of an original thought.
Dandee

Krauthammer is correct, IMO, because we are hoping and praying So hard to get this Congress on the side of the public, we are planning, maybe a little too soon to start celebrating. Those of us who have watched our country go down the drain for the last 16/18 months are very hopeful that we will get OUR opinions through to them. IMO the president is going to do EXACTLY the opposite of whatever the majority of public want. With THIS Congress he knows he can do whatever he wants because he has them under his hands and they know NOT to go against him. I do not know how he has done it, but it is showing, in every bill that is trying to get passed. It seems that whatever HE wants they will bow down and do exactly that. WE need some people in Congress that supports, as they promised in their oath, to uphold our Constitution, not a Constitution that the president wants to replace with the one we now have. One more word, Mrs. Sarah Palin would put most of you to shame, if only you knew how much she knows about our government and would do as our Constitution is written.
http://debunkerhill.com CatM

Dandee:

Conservatives can’t have it both ways. They claim they want to follow the Constitution. In the next breath, they say they want to change the Constitution so children born in the United States to undocumented workers are not automatically citizens. The Constitution mandates “freedom of religion,” (not just Christian religion), yet Conservatives in several places in the United States are trying to prevent Muslims from practicing their religion.

When the Constitution was written, it said people had the right to bear arms and form militias. It did not say they had the right to bear semi-automatic weapons and machine guns.

As for Sarah Palin putting “most of you” to shame, if you think Sarah Palin knows more about the Constituion than you do, I am sorry for your ignorance, because she knows very little about anything–including the Constitution. Sarah Palin is not very high on the intellectual scale and can barely speak a proper sentence unless someone has written it for her and she has managed to memorize it first.

As for President Obama, he was elected with a significant majority, enjoys higher poll ratings than Reagan and George W. Bush did at this point in their first term, and has made many decisions that majorities support. The problem is the media likes to focus on all the hick Teabaggers and pretend that they compose a much larger constitutency than they actually do. It makes for good ratings and requires far less work than the investigative, intellectual journalistic efforts of the past.

We need people in Congress that work for the people; not Republicans who work for the rich and are attempting to drive us into feudalism, with the “haves” having complete dominion over the “have less.” Why so many low-income people support Republicans against their own welfare escapes me–except that–like gamblers–they cling to the fantasy that someday they might strike it rich, too, because this is America.

Good luck with that. Sure, there’s a chance, but reality shows that, percentage-wise, very few Americans born in poverty ever manage to escape it. The sooner all Americans wake up and realize that their daily toil is going primarily to line the pockets of someone with a yacht, a multi-million dollar mansion, and a trophy wife who likes expensive clothes, the sooner we can get around to electing people who actually work for the people–and not for the power brokers.
http://SailRabbits.com Magister

Without actually trying I can’t find a quick link, but ImNotBlue has made a couple of comments warning that a Republican takeover or near takeover in November could help Obama in ’12. I don’t know if (s)he is Krauthammer, if he’s reading these forums or (s)he is ahead of the game, but I thought it worth mentioning and it also allows me to label Charlie’s column an old meme.
Big_F-ing_Deal

Magister said:
or (s)he is ahead of the game

He’s not.

Kraut-Himmler mentioned the same thing on Fox’s O’Reilly Factor and Special Report a few days before his column came out.

ImNotBlue heard it there and parroted it here.
http://www.pmm.nl Ron C. de Weijze

“Never underestimate Obama” of course is a pars pro toto for “never underestimate liberals”. Not because they are so good (they are too) but because they can be so bad. Or rather, ARE bad. Even not knowing it, let alone believing it. Ask anybody who knows what individual accountability is, and self-criticism, why.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Mark-R-Heath/1226051239 Mark R. Heath

CatM, you are a total moron. There is nothing that Mau Mau Bama has done that is positive for anyone in this country. Yea that clown was elected by a pack of economically ignorant twenty somethings and minorities wanting a handout from the people who work to make things happen in this country. You criticize people who have yachts as if you know what one is. Well believe it or not, there are people who get paid to make those yachts!!! Marxists like you think that wealth is created out of thing air because you hate people who make more money than you or are more successful than you. Try getting off of your dead a@s and make something of yourself instead of going after people who produce something. Mao Bama has never had a real job in his life and goes around bashing the producers in this country. He is a moron and will be thrown out in 2012, and neutered in 2010.
http://debunkerhill.com CatM

Honestly, Mark R. Heath (any relation to Palin?), I’ve never thought anything was created out of “thing air.”

I think your post says enough about you without me having to go the extra mile and call you a moron, so I won’t waste my time with that.
jimw1016

Dandee said:
Krauthammer is correct, IMO, because we are hoping and praying So hard to get this Congress on the side of the public, we are planning, maybe a little too soon to start celebrating. Those of us who have watched our country go down the drain for the last 16/18 months are very hopeful that we will get OUR opinions through to them. IMO the president is going to do EXACTLY the opposite of whatever the majority of public want. With THIS Congress he knows he can do whatever he wants because he has them under his hands and they know NOT to go against him. I do not know how he has done it, but it is showing, in every bill that is trying to get passed. It seems that whatever HE wants they will bow down and do exactly that. WE need some people in Congress that supports, as they promised in their oath, to uphold our Constitution, not a Constitution that the president wants to replace with the one we now have. One more word, Mrs. Sarah Palin would put most of you to shame, if only you knew how much she knows about our government and would do as our Constitution is written.

This country has been going down the tubes for one hell of a lot longer than these last few months. Where were you when the wars were started and we sold out to big oil, pharma, etc.? You people are amazing, instead of looking the problems dead in the eye, you hide behind a bunch of partisan, very political thieves and liars. Fill me in on what was so great about the Bush years? Take your time, I’ll wait!
jimw1016

CatM said:
Dandee:

Conservatives can’t have it both ways. They claim they want to follow the Constitution. In the next breath, they say they want to change the Constitution so children born in the United States to undocumented workers are not automatically citizens. The Constitution mandates “freedom of religion,” (not just Christian religion), yet Conservatives in several places in the United States are trying to prevent Muslims from practicing their religion.

When the Constitution was written, it said people had the right to bear arms and form militias. It did not say they had the right to bear semi-automatic weapons and machine guns.

As for Sarah Palin putting “most of you” to shame, if you think Sarah Palin knows more about the Constituion than you do, I am sorry for your ignorance, because she knows very little about anything–including the Constitution. Sarah Palin is not very high on the intellectual scale and can barely speak a proper sentence unless someone has written it for her and she has managed to memorize it first.

As for President Obama, he was elected with a significant majority, enjoys higher poll ratings than Reagan and George W. Bush did at this point in their first term, and has made many decisions that majorities support. The problem is the media likes to focus on all the hick Teabaggers and pretend that they compose a much larger constitutency than they actually do. It makes for good ratings and requires far less work than the investigative, intellectual journalistic efforts of the past.

We need people in Congress that work for the people; not Republicans who work for the rich and are attempting to drive us into feudalism, with the “haves” having complete dominion over the “have less.” Why so many low-income people support Republicans against their own welfare escapes me–except that–like gamblers–they cling to the fantasy that someday they might strike it rich, too, because this is America.

Good luck with that. Sure, there’s a chance, but reality shows that, percentage-wise, very few Americans born in poverty ever manage to escape it. The sooner all Americans wake up and realize that their daily toil is going primarily to line the pockets of someone with a yacht, a multi-million dollar mansion, and a trophy wife who likes expensive clothes, the sooner we can get around to electing people who actually work for the people–and not for the power brokers.

EXACTLY. Whatever happened to”OF THE PEOPLE….BY THE PEOPLE…FOR THE PEOPLE”? This precious point has been steamrolled over for many years by our illustrious partisan thieves and liars.
jimw1016

Ron C. de Weijze said:
“Never underestimate Obama” of course is a pars pro toto for “never underestimate liberals”. Not because they are so good (they are too) but because they can be so bad. Or rather, ARE bad. Even not knowing it, let alone believing it. Ask anybody who knows what individual accountability is, and self-criticism, why.

Great point!! You’re absolutely right, ask any politician on either side of the aisle that same question. They will look back at you like a deer in the headlights. If you firmly believe this is a Democratic or Republican party issue you are blind and foolish. What makes the Repubs so special? They are thieves and liars too.
jimw1016

Mark R. Heath said:
CatM, you are a total moron. There is nothing that Mau Mau Bama has done that is positive for anyone in this country. Yea that clown was elected by a pack of economically ignorant twenty somethings and minorities wanting a handout from the people who work to make things happen in this country. You criticize people who have yachts as if you know what one is. Well believe it or not, there are people who get paid to make those yachts!!! Marxists like you think that wealth is created out of thing air because you hate people who make more money than you or are more successful than you. Try getting off of your dead a@s and make something of yourself instead of going after people who produce something. Mao Bama has never had a real job in his life and goes around bashing the producers in this country. He is a moron and will be thrown out in 2012, and neutered in 2010.

And you sir are a moron for trying to pass Republicans off as anything better. No Democrat has apologized to BP yet.
jimw1016

CatM said:
Honestly, Mark R. Heath (any relation to Palin?), I’ve never thought anything was created out of “thing air.”

I think your post says enough about you without me having to go the extra mile and call you a moron, so I won’t waste my time with that.

Smacks of idiocy and a total partisan fool mind.
jimw1016

Unbelievable! At best. The idiot claims herself to be the Shakespeare of Twitter! Now there’s an elevated distinction she deserves.

http://www.mediaite.com/online/sarah-palin-refudiates-criticism-declares-self-shakespeare-of-twitter/
T REX

HEYYYYYY…….. SARAH -I DONT KNOW HOW TO RAISE MY CHILDREN- PAY-LIN…IS COOORRRRECT…..SHE ASKED JOHN MCAIN FIRST B4 SHE MADE THE STATEMENT
http://none pyrope

BlackWidow said:
Yes, and if all that happens the rich peoples world will end. So sad.

If the “rich peoples’” world should end, I believe you would find yours would have ended much sooner. Like it or not, it is these “rich people” who provide your job and your way of life. As for myself, I would never want to work for a poor person, and I learned a long time ago that class envy is destructive.

Big_F-ing_Deal said:
Klaus Kraut-Himmler is right. Barack is just getting warmed up.

If you were nearly as funny as you think you are, it seems you would have laughed yourself to death a long time ago. As for those of us who live in the world of reality, your remark that “Barack is just getting warmed up” is the stuff of nightmares.

As for Dr. Krauthammer, it is rare to see anyone who has his capacity to reason out the truth, and that is why I mentioned on this site some time back that the Republicans should not count their chickens before they hatch.