Whatever criticisms may be leveled against President Barack Obama, no one can say he has failed to spell out his policy goals to the American people. He gave an exceptionally high — possibly a record high — number of interviews, speeches and statements in his recently completed first year in office. What’s more, he had a handy assist from the liberal, supportive national news media in disseminating his message.
So it is odd that he thinks a key reason he has had less success than he had hoped for is that he did not adequately communicate his ideas to the nation.
Speaking of his pricey ObamaCare socialized medicine scheme, he said in his State of the Union address, “I take my share of the blame for not explaining it more clearly to the American people.”
ABC News reported that “he believes he lost a direct connection to the American people in his first year in office because he focused too heavily on policymaking.”
In other words, he does not believe the public opposes his political aims as such, but only that the changes he seeks have not been communicated clearly, or have not come fast enough.
That is a strange interpretation of the public’s mood. Again and again, surveys have shown grave public doubts about ObamaCare and about the president’s economic policies — especially the mammoth, unproductive “stimulus.”
If the surveys did not make those doubts obvious enough, voters handed Democrats stinging Senate and gubernatorial defeats in 2009 and early this year, not only in middle-of-the-road Virginia but in extremely liberal Massachusetts and New Jersey.
What more evidence does Mr. Obama need that his problem is not a failure to communicate but a failure to present sensible policies that the American people would support?