A Nightmare on Constitution Avenue

If you wish to take break from the talking heads on cable or the blogs, now is a good time. As usual, the Washington press is overreacting to a bumpy (but hardly unprecedented) stretch in these United States. The stock market is volatile, the economy is sluggish, Americans are (purportedly) depressed, and the near-term future is uncertain. That of course is the press cue to press Daddy-in-Chief Obama to kiss our little foreheads and make it all better -- you know, by the weekend.

Enter, stage left, the meme of the week: "Democrats want a bolder Obama." That's today's lead political story in the august Washington Post in this August of our discontent. The WaPost's top tag-team of Karen Tumulty and Peter Wallsten (I'll call them "Tumusten" for short) grimly report that "Democrats are increasingly anxious about what they see as [Obama's] failure to advance a coherent and muscular strategy for addressing the nation’s economic ills. Growing numbers of Obama’s allies, beyond the liberal activists who have expressed disappointment in the past, contend that he has trimmed his sails too much since the party’s electoral defeats last fall." President Obama’s reelection - cue the horror movie female scream - is on the line, say Tumusten.

And the hard evidence for this purported Democratic backlash? Well, five people ― two former Clinton aides, two liberal lobbyists and one Democratic strategist ― say it's true. They speak for the entire Democratic base, you know. And no way do they have biased agendas. Plus, the president's poll numbers are down. That clinches it. The prosecution rests. Cue the horror movie female scream, again. Still, Tumusten is convinced Obama's "mettle" is being tested. How can he possibly withstand the withering pressure? Because defeating Hillary/McCain to become the first African American president, preventing economic armageddon in 2008, winning the first ever healthcare bill, killing bin Laden, and averting a calamitous credit default were mere trifles, trifles, compared to a rating agency's downgrade, the (unfortunate) loss of Navy Seals in a shooting war and a "topsy-turvy" stock market, Tumusten imply. Besides, Tumusten reports, "some Democrats" criticized Obama’s "monotone speech" Monday on the economy, more ironclad proof that Obama is doomed. Of course Tumusten never identified which Democrats or how many of them were aghast over the pep talk. But, hey, some were. Scary. If I were Obama, I'd just throw in the towel now.

Granted, I'm being snarky. But I'm not making any of this up. Read the piece. It's so thin on substance, you'd mistake it for the wispy cobwebs in any house of horror on Elm Street. So, one last time (this time with gusto): Cue the horror movie female scream!