God Help Me but I Agree with David Frum (again!)

What the hell is wrong with me? David Fucking Frum? Oy...

The job has overwhelmed [President Obama]. He’s not an alien, he’s not a radical. He’s just not the person the country needs. He’s not tough enough, he’s not imaginative enough, and he’s not determined enough.

In the throes of the worst economic crisis since the 1930s, the president ran out of ideas sometime back in 2009.

In the face of opposition, Obama goes passive. The mean Republicans refused votes on his Federal Reserve nominees and Obama … did nothing. Would Ronald Reagan have done nothing? FDR? Lyndon Johnson?

With unemployment at 10% and interest rates at 1%, the president got persuaded that it was debt and interest that trumped growth and jobs as Public Issue #1.

I think Obama is getting horrible advise from his inner circle and that that has a lot to do with his failure as a President, but it doesn't explain it all away.  He is responsible for steering a course for his Presidency and for the Nation and he has done an awful job to date.

Brad DeLong sums it up with a frightening prediction.

[F]or the first time I think it is more likely than not that Obama will lose the 2012 election. Never mind that as a reality-based leader he will be vastly superior to whatever wingnut or hypocrite the Republicans serve up--if the elite press adopts Frum's critique, then we have sixteen months to listen to the media speak with one voice about how Obama is not tough and decisive enough to be a good president.