Yo-Bama And The Disappearing Middle

It hasn’t showed up in the polls yet (and probably won’t for some time), but President Barack Obama is beginning to lose “the middle.”

Or to put it more succinctly, he may have wiped it off the map.

What we do know is that for the first time since his election in November – Obama is starting to encounter rhetorical defections from a centrist core of political opinion leaders.

And that could very well become the first crack in the dam of his political invincibility with the real “middle,” a growing group of fiscal conservatives/ social libertarians who believe both major parties have sold them out.

We get it that the Rush Limbaughs (Sic Willies?) of the world are going to foam at the mouth over every new Obama outrage, but the people starting to figure out that they got bamboozled aren’t the fire-eaters – they’re what the MSM would call “reasoned moderates.”

In other words, they’re the same bespectacled, loafer-sporting, Burberry scarf-wearing Starbucks chic crowd that got Obama elected on a wave of white guilt and middle class tax cuts.

But from the looks of it, they’re no longer buying what Obama is selling.

Back on November 21, for example, New York Times columnist David Brooks heaped effusive praise on Obama’s incoming administration.

Brooks wrote then that “the events of the past two weeks should be reassuring to anybody who feared that Obama would veer to the left or would suffer self-inflicted wounds because of his inexperience. He’s off to a start that nearly justifies the hype.”

In an article published earlier this week, however, the scales have clearly fallen from Brooks’ eyes.

“Those of us who consider ourselves moderates — moderate-conservative, in my case — are forced to confront the reality that Barack Obama is not who we thought he was,” Brooks writes now. “His words are responsible; his character is inspiring. But his actions betray a transformational liberalism that should put every centrist on notice.”

Later, after decrying Obama’s “uber-partisan budget” as an “entirely new … social engineering experiment,” Brooks ticks off other examples of the liberal goose-stepping.

“In the past weeks, Democrats have legislated provisions to dilute welfare reform, restrict the inflow of skilled immigrants and gut a voucher program designed for poor students. It will be up to moderates to raise the alarms against these ideological outrages.”

Ironically, Obama’s gutting of parental choice in DC could result in children being forced to leave the same Washington private school his kids attend.

But Brooks is not alone in his gradual realization that Obama is, for lack of a better word, a communist.

U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Indiana) also dared to call “The One” to account this week, publishing an oped in the Wall Street Journal just yesterday that specifically questioned whether Obama’s walk matched his talk on spending reform.

Addressing an earmark-laden appropriations bill, Bayh had this to say:

The Senate should reject this bill. If we do not, President Barack Obama should veto it … Spending should be held in check before taxes are raised, even on the wealthy. Last week I was pleased to attend the president’s White House Fiscal Responsibility Summit. It’s about time we had a leader committed to addressing the deficit, and Mr. Obama deserves great credit for doing so. But what ultimately matters are not meetings or words, but actions.

Exactly.

And Obama’s actions, if left unchecked, are quite simply going to lead to the ruin of this country. In fact, they quite possibly already have.

According to the latest polls, Obama’s approval ratings are still very high – in the 60’s – but there is a tremendous disconnect between the popular president and his unpopular policies.

Eventually, a correction will occur, and Obama will either tack to the center or lose support.

Let’s hope one or the other happens soon.

With our government blowing through $36 billion a day, time is of the essence.

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