Obama Feeling His Oats

Boise State, January 21, 2015

Of course, yesterday’s “State of the Union” disappointed me. As Byron York in the conservative Washington Examiner wrote:

The joint session of Congress listening to President Obama Tuesday night included 83 fewer Democrats than the group that heard Obama's first address in 2009 — 69 fewer Democrats in the House and 14 fewer in the Senate. The scene in the House Chamber was a graphic reminder of the terrible toll the Obama years have taken on Capitol Hill Democrats.

[Truly] remarkable, against the backdrop of the Democratic electoral carnage of his years in office, was that the president's most memorable line of the night was a bit of ad-lib bragging about his own election victories. When Obama said, "I have no more campaigns to run," some Republicans snarkily began to applaud, whereupon the president shot back, "I know, because I won both of them."

The president has two objective reasons to feel popped up. Two indexes. Wall Street’s index of prosperity--the Dow Jones 30 industrials--is near all-time highs. And Obama’s poll disapproval/approval ratings, as measured by the “RealClearPolitics” average, are back down to single digits (today, even under -5%). Obama lost an election, sure, but it was one of those mid-terms where “the folks” don’t show up. Just wait until 2016--the next presidential election!

The president, who often says the opposite of what he knows to be true, again said the reverse of what he's planning when he proclaimed, "I have no more campaigns to run." The permanent campaigner has another round to go. He’s hopping across the country (see photo) campaigning for an agenda, his agenda, and the agenda he plans to force on Hillary (or more readily if she decides to run, on Elizabeth Warren) in 2016, one that might pass Congress in two years with another Democrat in the White House and with Democrats back running the Senate.

The mainstream media finds the entire enterprise delightful, and can’t stop talking about Obama’s post-lame duck energy.

The Dow doesn't measure median income stagnation, and polls are only a snapshot in time.  Congressional Republicans can and should recapture the initiative they earned in November. Right now though, Obama’s press-backed permanent campaign is more visible, as the polls tell us.