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President Obama is Headed for a Wipeout
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ny native Hawaiian (and even most adopted residents) knows of Eddie Aikau, legendary 1970s surfer-cum-lifeguard on the infamous North Shore of Oahu. His boldness on a surfboard, whether saving swimmers in Waimea Bay or winning surfing championships on Sunset Beach, pervades popular culture in the Rainbow State to this day. As a former resident, I remember seeing bumper stickers and t-shirts with the slogan, “Eddie Would Go”, an allusion to Aikau’s fearless skill in riding big waves and reverence for the power of the ocean.
Love of surfing is deeply rooted in Hawaiian culture with an almost spiritual connection to the sea. Hawaiians view Aikau’s daring as emblematic of their Polynesian ancestors’ ability to harness the ocean swells that brought them to the island chain centuries ago. President Obama, a native Hawaiian himself, is certainly no stranger to the lore of Eddie Aikau and should be adept at navigating the waves of public opinion by virtue of his position.
To Obama’s credit, he exploited the anti-Bush sentiment that rolled over the country in 2008, cruising into office with the coolness of a longboard surfer riding the calm breakers of Waikiki Beach. The country was indeed hopeful that an era of post-racial, post-partisan political leadership would take us out of the economic crisis that began in 2007. But Obama never fashioned himself a surfer, neither in his youth nor in his political life. Rather, he intended to command the tides, at one point referring to his potential election as “the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow.”
After taking office, President Obama boldly unleashed a flood of legislation, drowning Americans in regulation, spending, and government debt. Wave after wave—from auto company bailouts, to the stimulus bill, to the House-passed cap-and-trade scheme—the President’s agenda washed over the country with the Hawaiian Commander-in-Chief riding high on legislative victories.
Then came the tsunamis of ObamaCare and Dodd-Frank Financial Regulation, multi-thousand-paged attempts to remake whole sectors of the American economy to government’s liking. However, the result has been a Rasmussen Presidential Approval Rating that is underwater— as of August 22, 2010, 42% of voters strongly disapprove of President Obama while only 25% of voters strongly approve.
Liberal apologists would attribute this disconnect to the strength of Obama’s “vision” for the country vis-à-vis an ignorant public lacking the stomach for substantive shifts in public policy. The Democratic base urges President Obama and Congressional Democrats to continue down the path of omnipotent governance claiming that everyday Americans’ lack of appreciation will fade.
In response to this expansive government-as-economic-adjudicator mission, a massive swell is building in resistance to the Obama-Reid-Pelosi plan and threatens to break on November 2nd. While enacting his priorities and attempting to command the political waters, the Obama Administration is proving drastically unable to read the surges of public opinion.
