The intellectual snob gets his come-uppance

Dorothy Rabinowitz in the WSJ: "Why Obama is no Roosevelt"

But it was about far more than health-care reform, or joblessness, or the great ideological divide between the president and the rest of the country. It was about an accumulation of facts quietly taken in that told Americans that the man they had sent to the White House had neither the character or the capacity to lead the country.

Their president was the toast of Europe, masterful before the adoring crowds - but one who had remarkably soon proved unable to inspire, in citizens at home, any belief that he was a leader they could trust. Or one who trusted them or their instincts. His Democratic voters were unhappy? They, and their limited capacities, were to blame.

These are conspicuous breaks in the armor of civility and charm that candidate Obama once showed - and those breaks are multiplying.

There's been a lot of talk about how Obama's administration is (so far) following the trajectory of Reagan or Clinton's: a poor economy at the start followed by a Congressional shift, then recovery and re-election. But I honestly don't believe Obama can get re-elected; he's a one-termer.

Politically, he can position himself to the center but that would go against his statist instincts and I think he's much too arrogant to bend his will (you do it, Obama whines to the Republicans.) So you have a liberal President living in a center-right country. But beyond that, Obama does not connect with Americans. Clinton, Reagan, the Bushes: you can see yourself sharing a hot dog at the baseball game with them. Obama – not so much.

It's the "living room" test all over again. Every election Americans need to ask if they want this guy in their living room for four years. Other candidates are like Captain Kirk while Obama is as cold as Spock. And that might have been enough if Spock had guided us through the Kobayashi Maru test. But he didn't and we've blown through a galaxy of Federation dollars in the process.