Peggy Noonan: Not-So-Smooth Operator
"Something's happening to President Obama's relationship with those who are inclined not to like his policies. They are now inclined not to like him. His supporters would say, "Nothing new there," but actually I think there is. I'm referring to the broad, stable, nonradical, non-birther right. Among them the level of dislike for the president has ratcheted up sharply the past few months."
...."All these things have hardened lines of opposition, and left opponents with an aversion that will not go away.
"I am not saying that the president has a terrible relationship with the American people. I'm only saying he's made his relationship with those who oppose him worse.
...."Really, he cannot win the coming election. But the Republicans, still, can lose it. At this point in the column we usually sigh."
Brutal week for Obama, the worst of his presidency "Somehow, Mr. Obama managed to embarrass himself abroad, humiliate himself here at home, see his credentials for being elected so severely undermined that it raises startling questions about whether he should have been elected in the first place — let alone be re-elected later this year." Charles Krauthammer: Obama’s Flexibility Doctrine "You don’t often hear an American president secretly (he thinks) assuring foreign leaders that concessions are coming their way, but that they must wait because he’s seeking reelection and he dare not tell his own people." ...".Let’s do the accounting. In addition to canceling the Polish/Czech missile-defense system, Obama gave the Russians accession to the World Trade Organization, a START treaty that they need and we don’t (their weapons are obsolete and deteriorating rapidly), and a scandalously blind eye to their violations of human rights and dismantling of democracy. Obama even gave Putin a congratulatory call for winning his phony election."