Alex Massie Alex Massie

Obama: My Opponents Are Beastly

I think it’s ridiculous to argue that Obama is comparing himself to Lincoln here and his remarks about the Old School way of doing politics are a welcome reminder that American politics is not actually very much or even at all uglier now than it has been in the past. Which kinda makes it unfortunate that on his latest non-campaigning, campaign tour the President complained that:

“The problem,” Obama continued, “is that we’ve got the kind of partisan brinksmanship that is willing to put party ahead of country, that is more interested in seeing their political opponents lose than seeing the country win. Nowhere was that more evident than in this recent debt ceiling debacle.”

He also, incidentally, blamed his present woes on “bad luck”. Now there’s something to this but it’s not often a good idea for a politicians to say so. It carries a pungent whiff of weakness and, worse still, self-pity. 

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