Is the question addressed to Obama or the voters?

In Obama's case I suppose we'll see more trips to Hawaii, more "date nights" and other activities for the symbolic head-of-state that he really wanted to be. He didn't want to be (or had the experience to be) an executive, but he did want to do all the fun stuff on the periphery, like the Queen of England does full time.

So I suppose the country will be in the hands of staffers, a "shadow cabinet", or something else scary.

As for voters, what can we do other than try to stack the deck as high as possible in the mid-term elections?

Gloat.
And pray.

JWM

What if he just says "F*ck it" and rams through as much crap as he legally can through Executive orders and "czars"?

This revolutionary boy has no intention of doing a Bill Clinton, so he will try to dig himself a deeper hole and take us with him. He shares this traight with Adolf--that we are not deserving of him.

So it's going to be the Democrats that destroy him, to save themselves. Everything that the left has givin him cover for will be fair game, plus some thing we never heard of. The Rats will save themselves, they always do. And McCain will be around to help them.

Elect as many Republicans and Libertarians as possible so he can't get any money to do anything. Unfortunately, that can't stop him from mucking up every foreign policy adventure.

I think he's ripe to be picked off by a Democrat to his right, just as Ted Kennedy tried to take out Carter from the left.

When I'm not I'm not vituperating against Obama to anyone who'll read or listen, I'll do what I can to help get Republicans elected; otherwise, I'll sit in the back row with a bottle of muscatel in a brown paper sack and throw things at the screen.

When I watch Obama, it is like watching my kids when they were about 18 and 14. Selfish, self-centered, and prone to temper tantrums if they didn't get their own way, and certain that they knew it all and that I was the biggest dummy in town.

The way Obama is answering this question is by declaring war - not against the country's actual enemies, but against his political opponents. Consider this insider-type piece in the NYT.

Note the bellicose, indeed, military language used throughout. And then note that the enemy being referred to is other Americans.

The militarization of political discourse is nothing new, but this administration takes it to new heights lows.

And you thought Hillary had an enemies list. Hoo, boy, you ain't seen nuthin' yet.

But here is what is at stake, as I wrote last July: "Health care bill is defining the future."

I think that Obama and his inner circle realize that if they can't get this package, or something very close to it, passed then they will be faced with the fact that Obama, [then] barely more than a half-year into his first term, will basically be a lame duck.

It's dawning on a lot of Dems in Congress that there is little public support for this bill, and what there is, is shrinking rapidly, according to polls.

At bottom, no one in Congress is going to risk his seat on this bill.

We may get a bill of some kind, but if so it will be a greatly watered down version of the Obama plan. That won't make it better, of course, but it won't be Obama's, either. After that, he'll have not much truck with Dems in Congress, who will enjoy the freedom of running away from the White House, even to the point that in some tossup seats next year, we'll see some Dems running against Obama as much as their Republican opponents.I don't take a word back and, as matter of record (and ego) claim to have been first to attach lame duckness to Obama in relation to health care legislation. And a lot of recent mainline, Big Blog or media commentary have started to hint at it too, nowadays.

We're gonna need a bigger garbage scow.

Handsome fellow. I think this new version is much better looking than the last.

The line of succession is:

1. Pelosi
2. The Grand Klegal*
3. Hillary

So BO is safe until 20-01-2012. Or until Pelosi and the Klegal are replaced by Republicans.

*Should the Klegal assume room temperature, he will be replaced by Daniel Inouye (D-HI) and then Patrick Leahy (D-VT). Not a pretty prospect.

You come up with a birth certificate that's either genuine or is authentic enough to reveal the man's origins, and then you let nature take its course on his side of the aisle.

OK, I volunteer to be the contrarian. Every Pres has his ups and downs, times he looks invincible and times nothing seems to go right. This case is a bit stronger than usual because of the contrast between one year ago and today.

Too many people have too much at stake for a complete collapse, so others in the Democratic party will intervene if Obama does not shift course to a more successful administration. Indeed he may on his own volition change course in ways that play down his recent mistakes and play up to his inherent strengths among those who elected him.

It is just as likely that eighteen months from now he will be resurgent as that the next three years will be an embarrassing collapse.

James Wilson has it right, I believe. There are arrogant purists still doubling down on stupid right now, but most Democratic Party officeholders are in for the long run. They are political street fighters with survival instincts that put rats and cockroaches to shame. Seeing Obama drag their chances of re-election down to near single digits is going to change their tunes mightily.

And there'll be good amusement in watching the White House edition of "Lifestyles of the Powerful and Clueless" for the next three years.

As for Covany's idea that in eighteen months Obama might be resurgent, it seems just as likely that by then he'll be impeached. Right now is the calm between 9-11 and whatever Jihad brings us next. Obama is quickly assuming Carter levels of useless idiocy; with luck he'll just become our first Court Jester President. A little less luck, and we'll have our own Neville Chamberlain.