OBAMA II – AT 8:34 A.M. ET:  We've said here many times that the British writers are often sharper observers of American politics than are their American counterparts.  Nile Gardiner, a British conservative, has an especially perceptive, and decidedly negative, piece on Obama and his prospects.  From London's Telegraph:

Ignore the revisionist hype in sections of the liberal media about President Obama staging a (mythical) political comeback – this is a presidency with an approval rating of 45 percent (according to the RealClear Politics poll of polls), that presides over a nation where just 27 percent of voters think the country is moving in the right direction, and which just 29 percent of Americans think will be returned to power in 2012.

No tingle up his leg. 

The political landscape still looks strikingly bleak for the “transformational president” as he goes into 2011. 2010 was a stunningly bad year for Barack Obama, no matter how much the likes of The New York Times or The Washington Post might try to sugar coat it.

You mean, they're not entirely accurate?

Gardiner gives four reasons why Obama is in hot water:

1. The midterm elections were a defeat of epic proportions for the Obama Presidency.

When Barack Obama spoke of a “shellacking” at the midterms, it was a huge understatement. The Republicans scored a significantly bigger win than they did in 1994, with their biggest gain in the House of Representatives in 62 years – since 1948.

2. Conservatism grew increasingly dominant in America.

As a recent Gallup survey showed, 48 percent of Americans now describe themselves as “conservative”, compared to 32 percent who call themselves “moderate”, and just 20 percent who call themselves “liberal”...

...Barack Obama, the most liberal US president of the modern era, has a natural liberal constituency comprised of just one in five Americans, which certainly does not bode well for 2012.

3. The Left lost ground and engaged in a brutal civil war.

2010 was a monumentally bad year for the liberal establishment in the United States, not only in electoral terms but in terms of increasing divisions within its ranks, as well as the continuing decline of the “mainstream” liberal media. Conservative media, from Fox News to The Wall Street Journal, have had a tremendous year, increasing market share while establishment giants from CNN to network news outlets continue to decline.

4. The Tea Party became more powerful than the president at the ballot box.

A small grassroots movement with barely any resources evolved into the most successful US political movement of this generation, sparking a national protest against the Big Government policies of the Obama administration, and a powerful call for a return to America’s founding principles. The Tea Party was initially mocked and jeered by its political opponents, including the president, but later came to be feared by the Left as it flexed tremendous political muscle.

COMMENT:  My, my, I hope they don't show Gardiner's article to the president.  Maybe Mr. Obama should consider another line of work.

At the same time, any president has substantial political resources, and this one is a great campaigner.  As we've said here, don't count him out.  If the Republicans work as hard to lose the 2012 election as they've worked to lose other elections, they may actually lose it.

December 31, 2010