[img]1|left|Ari Noonan||no_popup[/img]If Swish Obama were out driving late one night and ploughed into a tree trunk, do you think he really would glance at his teleprompter, then swear to the judge the trunk veered into his path before he could swerve?

I imagine his two children with Mad Michelle aren’t his fault, either. The cause still stumps him.

Hardly anything that has happened in the last 24 months has been his fault, according to his repetitive testimony.

Inaccurately hailed as one of the most effective communicators ever in the White House, he says the reason that a near-record 60-plus Republicans were elected to Congress yesterday could be traced to our failure to comprehend how darned much good he has done for us. Just because he is such a fine fellow.

Did He or Didn’t He? I Dunno.

It was typical Obama at this morning’s Day After press conference in the White House.

He was not what he seemed to be.

For a moment, I felt as if I were back again attending a school play featuring one of my sons. My boy reaches a heart-stopping pause in mid-scene where he seems to have forgotten his line, only to begin again, then just as abruptly halts six words later and looks helplessly into the wings for the drama coach.

Even though I was alone while watching Mr. Obama, I began to almost cheer. “Almost” is the constant tenor of this administration. We are almost to the abyss; we are the only ones who can prevemt trgedy; just follow us over the cliff; it isn’t that steep.

“My folks” almost succeeded. “My folks” almost failed. Mr. Obama is almost the Messiah, a role he slightly backed away from while not completely denying it.

Isn’t that this fellow’s profile, almost but not quite.

He was almost experienced but not quite. He was almost an academic star in college but not quite. We almost know the story of his life but not quite. We almost know the identity of his religion but not quite. We almost know what he believes but not quite. Eh, what?

Only Exaggerations Are Visible

All that is transparent and obvious about his character is the sheer overkill, the massive personal hyperbole, perpetuated by his toadies in the media, who are indistinguishable from fans in the crowds.

Where is the evidence for the inflated claims about this supposedly unique person?

Who says he is a hotshot communicator, best since Reagan or Kennedy?

Not seriously, pal.

Mr. Obama had the gall to stand before the public today — like an instantly empowered high school kid who has just sneaked 10 beers into his belly — and say we have done so much good for “working families,” but the voters rebelled yesterday because they didn’t understand how fortunate they are to be recipients of this amazing largesse.

They voted a historic number of Republicans into the House of Representatives because, said Mr. Obama, because we didn’t tell you how generous we have been to you.

Weaving like a football player running the length of the field to elude defenders, at times he appeared to take the blame for the electoral massacre. But when you stepped closer to inspect the texture of his evident admission, it was not a confession at all, just more duck and run.

The most cogent assessment of the President’s reaction this morning was captured by one of America’s most brilliant thinkers, Prof. Victor Davis Hanson, who wrote the following for National Review Online (http://www.nationalreview.com/corner) :

He seems bewildered (for the first time?) that his popularity as a campaign rhetorician did not last when he became responsible for actual governance. For most of the press conference, a humbled but deer-in-the-headlights Obama half-heartedly argued that the populist outrage against his own massive debt, huge wasteful government and elitism was really outrage against the economy he inherited, an outrage that he shares. We don’t know it, the President hints, but we are still angry at the Bush years, and yesterday mistakenly took our wrath out on Obama’s methodical, albeit too slow, efforts at recovery. In short, there was little admission whatsoever that Obama’s message and the way he pushed it turned off millions — there was no repentant Clinton, circa autumn 1994, here; instead, a shocked Obama who seems hurt that we do not appreciate him.