Byron York @ The Washington Examiner:
There’s no doubt President Obama’s liberal supporters are worried by his lackluster performance in the Denver debate. “Everyone is in shock,” one show-business liberal told the Hollywood reporter. “No one can understand what happened.” The Obama faithful are offering the White House advice, talking points, pep talks — anything to improve the president’s performance when he next faces Mitt Romney at Hofstra University on October 16.
But for some liberal writers, the concern goes deeper. Perhaps Obama’s somewhat withdrawn demeanor at the debate was an indication that he doesn’t even want a second term as president.
On the morning after the debate, The Atlantic ran an analysis headlined, “Snippy Obama, Whose Heart’s Not In It.” Writer Garance Franke-Ruta suggested that Obama, as an unusually sensitive man, has been worn down by the presidency’s demands of conducting war in Afghanistan and dealing with crises like the murder of a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans in Libya. “His supporters keep wanting Obama to be who he was in 2008,” Franke-Ruta wrote. “But that’s not who he is anymore.” Obama’s old enthusiasm for the job is simply gone.
Now, in the Daily Beast, liberal writer Michael Tomasky asks, “Does Obama Even Want to Win the Election?” After poor Obama showings at the debate, the Democratic convention, and a high-profile “60 Minutes” interview, Tomasky writes, “Someone needs to ask the cut-to-the-chase question: is he enthusiastic about keeping this job, or he is just maybe tired of being president?”
Perhaps he is. If so, there were certainly signs long before Wednesday night in Denver. A look at the president’s career shows he has never stayed in a job four years without looking to move on to something better.
After a year or two as a community organizer, Obama became deeply frustrated by his inability to enact the kind of big changes in society that he wanted to see. He went to Harvard Law School to plug into the power structure that would help him make those changes in the future. Returning to Chicago three years later, he dabbled in the practice of law before winning a seat in the state Senate in 1996. But he became frustrated with the job almost immediately; according to a Washington Post profile, Obama began “chafing … at the limitations of legislating in Springfield.”
The easily-bored state legislator almost immediately began planning a run for the U.S. House in 2000 — which turned out to be his only losing campaign. Shortly thereafter, he set his sights on the U.S. Senate, winning in 2004.
But within a year after arriving in Washington in early 2005, Obama was restless again. According to the election account Game Change, in 2006 Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid “sensed [Obama’s] frustration and impatience, had heard rumblings that Obama was already angling to head back home and take a shot at the Illinois governorship.”
I guess obama finally discovered that he was elected to do a job not run around campaigning and going on expensive vacations. Ooooohhhh poor wittle obama.
We’ve now seen—even by the admissions of Mitt’s own team—that Romney misrepresented some of his own facts during the debate. Even though he was not aware of his own errors at the time, I’m sure Romney would make up more facts to argue his false assertions. Obama recognized where the debate was going—based on these false arguments—and decided not to get involved with such absurdities.
@Liberal1 (Objectivity):
Cha-ching, cha-ching, Lib1. That is the sound Big Oil and foreign labor hears every time you use your computer to post here, wearing it out so you will have to buy another one. So keep posting those useless posts based in nothing but your opinion and totally void of facts.
Cha-ching, CHA-CHING.
@Liberal1 (Objectivity):
Obama went to a debate and was not ready with his facts, figures and record.
Why else would he stand for 90 minutes and not engage his opponent.
Jim L. wasn’t going to stop him!
IF there were false major premises in Romney’s arguments a decent debater, prepped for his dabate should have been able to shred him.
Obama couldn’t.
And, since then, Obama has resorted to MOCKERY.
Obama’s PAID spokespersons have STIPULATED what Romney said was accurate.
And people/organizations Obama relied on (AARP, NBC News, Princeton economics expert) are telling him to stop using their statements in ads as if they are in support of his views!
@Liberal1 (Objectivity): Like 0-blama hasn’t lied to America during his Presidency?? Give me a break!! Unemployment below 6%, national debt cut in half, affordable healthcare, and transparency in his administration? Just for starters!!
@Common Sense:
Obama hasn’t lied to the American people? I have one word for Greg:
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B – E – N – G – H – A – Z – I