When George Will is good, he is exceptionally good. In his nationally-syndicated column Monday, Will tackles President Obama’s characteristic arrogance and the separation of powers that Mr. Obama, a Constitutional scholar, serially ignores.
Here is Will on President Obama’s abundant love of self:
“Inordinate self-regard is an occupational hazard of politics and part of the job description of the rhetorical presidency, this incessant tutor. Still, upon what meat doth this our current Caesar feed that he has grown so great that he presumes to command leaders of a coequal branch of government? He once boasted (June 3, 2008) that he could influence the oceans’ rise; he must be disabused of comparable delusions about controlling Congress.
And here is Will’s perspective on the degree to which spending has risen under Mr. Obama and on the subsequent protests from the President’s political party against “extremist” Republican cut proposals:
“Obama’s wee mendacity…illustrates the large stakes of the debt debate, which is a proxy for an epochal argument about the nature of American governance. Obama’s money gusher has driven federal spending from under 20 percent of GDP to almost 25 percent. Democrats consider this the new normal — until it becomes the base from which they launch their next surge of statism.”
What Will drives home best, perhaps, without having to put it in ink, is the President’s growing unlikability factor. Likability was the one thing the President had going for himself, and with every passing day one struggles to remember why it was we felt that about this guy.
In “Team of Rivals” Kearns recounts how President Lincoln paid a visit to General McClellan’s house to discuss the war matters (McClellan was supremely arrogant and had great disdain for Lincoln). Lincoln waited in the parlour room as the General was attending a wedding. Upon his return, Gen McClellan walked straight past the room and went to bed without even acknowledging the President. Lincoln only commented to his enraged aide that “it was better at this time not to be making points of etiquette and personal dignity”.
There are some Presidents we have had in the last 30 years who, in this circumstance, might have acted the the same way as Lincoln. But I doubt the current one would.
I suppose George Will should recognize arrogance when he sees it. Pot, kettle, black. Government spending has grown as a percentage of GDP because the GDP has gotten smaller. Numbers lie. Don’t believe them. And where in his brilliant piece does he mention the growth in government under GWB? Politics is the game of forgetting the past and blaming all of our problems on the current administration. Obama has eliminated over 500,000 federal employee positions since taking office.
http://thinkprogress.org/yglesias/2011/07/08/263588/the-conservative-recovery-continues-2/
Will lambasted Bush over spending.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/16/AR2005111601883.html
As painful as it is to read his treacle, it’s mostly okay. But belly aching over $27B in pork spending five years into the worst presidency in history hardly seems like a lambasting. The simple fact is that it doesn’t matter who sits in the white house, they march to the same drummer, corporate interests. Do you really think Romney or any other candidate will make substantial cuts? Change we can believe in, right? I never believed Obama would change Washington. It’s not possible. Contrary to your original piece, I think he’s a decent guy and I like him. Much better than most politicians. And a whole lot more than George Will.