Obama Has To Go Negative As He Can't Run On His Record

While reading this post from the must-read Jennifer Rubin, I started thinking about Obama is going to do about his record.  Usually, when running for re-election, you highlight your successes and communicate your vision for the next term.  However, in the case of Obama, is there anything he can actually run on?  He was able to ram through Obamacare, but unfortunately for him, the majority of Americans actually favor its repeal, and it might even be overturned before the election.  Also, the majority of the provisions don't start until after the election (I love it how he always wants to put things off until after the next election) so it's not like he can point to any aspect of the bill actually improving anyone's life.  Yes, you can now put your 25 year old child on your family insurance but given many are still living at home because of the economy, I'm sure many didn't need the reminder that their adult children are still dependents.  Besides Obamacare, he did get a stimulus package through Congress, but that has become a punchline of a not-so-funny joke.  The unemployment level, when adjusting for the millions deleted from the labor force by the BLS, is at a post-depression record so it looks like he broke our budget and our credit rating for nothing.

Also, most of the independents and Republicans who voted for him last time around seemed to vote for him for two reasons.  First, he promised to find a third way and bridge the left-right divide (why anybody believed someone could do that when they are from a one-party city like Chicago is beyond me) and second, he promised to mend the fences with the international community following his more cowboy-esque predecessor.  Obviously, he didn't bridge the left-right divide.  He didn't even try to attempt the first one.  Once elected, he came out guns blazing attempting to silence and exclude the GOP from decision making.  Remember when he told the GOP "I won" during negotiations over the failed stimulus?  Remember when he told McCain "the election is over" at the Healthcare Summit?  Or when he said he didn't want the GOP "to do a lot of talking"?  His foreign policy has been a complete disaster.  He has backstabbed and even deposed allies and his attempts to grovel to our enemies hasn't gone anywhere (the Russians are even back to their old dirty tricks).  Things have been so bad that even the French think we need to get more aggressive.

So he can't seem to run on either his domestic achievements or improvements in our foreign policy.  No wonder he's already planning to go negative on who he thinks is the likely GOP nominee.