Unencumbered

At the nine month point in the Obama presidency, his popularity was at a low point. President Obama and his minions in Congress, had proceeded without concern about whether their policies either worked or were popular. Being unencumbered by such concerns, they were liberated from much of the conventional politics. They had blithely implemented the laundry list of progressive policy positions that were well-known to insiders in the circle of leftist policy theorists. The possible flaw in this strategy is that they seem to have not considered that they could lose control of Congress after the 2010 elections and lose the presidency in the 2012 elections. They had bet the farm that the Republicans were so hapless as to be incapable of opposing them.

Obama unmasked

By the fall of 2009, the American people were learning just who they had elected to the Presidency of the United States in 2008. Obama had showed himself to be a radical leftist with little experience. He was good at producing happy talk but was short on ideas or results. That revelation was disappointing to everyone, as even his opponents had hoped that he would have a chance at success. After all, everyone would benefit by positive results, even if you disagreed with Obama's political philosophy. Obama continued to benefit by the equal lack of solutions and political savvy on the Republican side.