June 9, 2010

DOROTHY RABINOWITZ: The Alien in the White House: The distance between the president and the people is beginning to be revealed. “A great part of America now understands that this president’s sense of identification lies elsewhere, and is in profound ways unlike theirs. He is hard put to sound convincingly like the leader of the nation, because he is, at heart and by instinct, the voice mainly of his ideological class. He is the alien in the White House, a matter having nothing to do with delusions about his birthplace cherished by the demented fringe.”

Can the Democratic Party be saved? In the short term I don’t think so. Republicans will win control or near control of the Congress in the November elections thwarting Obama’s agenda for the following two years. However, the Presidential election of 2012 is still a toss up because Republicans will be so divided over a nominee to challenge Obama. The “Tea Party” and ideological conservatives will want a pure candidate that espouses their beliefs, while pragmatic moderate Republicans will want some one who can win. A third party candidate is a possibility. As for the Democrats I think Obama will be challenged for the nomination, possibly by Hillary Clinton. Obama will have to move toward the center to be re-elected if he survives the challenge.