Interview: Obama Admits Failures and, as usual, Blames Republicans!

Obama: "at best, average!"

Some White House aides who were ready to carve a new spot on Mount Rushmore for their boss two years ago privately concede now that he cannot be another Abraham Lincoln after all. In this environment, they have increasingly concluded, it may be that every modern president is going to be, at best, average. 
 --From: "The Education of a President," By Peter Baker, New York Times, October 12, 2010

Dems are in a tizzy about the interview Obama gave to the NY Times in these key final days of the fall election campaign. Liberal columnist David Corn, writing at Mother Jones Magazine asks: "Could the White House have picked a worse time to open up to the New York Times Magazine about its mistakes?" Others have suggested that the interview amounts to a sort of "pre-mortem" in advance of the fall election results which nearly every sane person concedes will be a repudiation of Obama and Democrats in Congress.

The interview included this amazing quote by Obama: “there’s no such thing as shovel-ready projects” which is an admission that his economic stimulus plan was based on faulty assumptions which a more experienced leader might not have made. Continued record unemployment is a sad testament to Obama's inexperience and lack of any grounding in economic and governing fundamentals.

What I found most astounding was this:

Obama told me, “we probably spent much more time trying to get the policy right than trying to get the politics right. There is probably a perverse pride in my administration — and I take responsibility for this; this was blowing from the top — that we were going to do the right thing, even if short-term it was unpopular. And I think anybody who’s occupied this office has to remember that success is determined by an intersection in policy and politics and that you can’t be neglecting of marketing and P.R. and public opinion.”

Good grief! As of March 2010 CBS News counted Obama delivering 54 speeches on health care. Since then, who knows how many more times he's made that a prime focus of his remarks. If anything, Obama has concentrated MORE on P.R. and politics than he has policy. And when he does concentrate on policy, he's usually excluding Republicans from the discussions and blaming them later for opposing his plans.

Obama's mea culpa does nothing to energize the liberal base which Dems cling to more desperately as the hours tick away towards November 2nd. This article is another bit of narcissim on Obama's part showing how totally self-focused he is. In that regard, it's another example of how he is prepared to toss his own party and it's leaders up for re-election under the bus at a key moment.

Don't say we didn't warn you!