Is Obama finally bringing left and right together? Byron York on Drew Westen’s Sunday NYT piece chopping up Obama from the left:
Why has Obama been such a disappointment? Westen comes up with a few theories that sound strikingly familiar to Obama’s critics on the right. Perhaps Obama “is simply not up to the task” of being president. Perhaps the Democrats who were so dazzled by his campaign speeches should have noticed “some disquieting aspects of his biography.” Among those disquieting aspects: “that he had accomplished very little before he ran for president, having never run a business or a state; that he had a singularly unremarkable career as a law professor, publishing nothing in 12 years at the University of Chicago other than an autobiography; and that, before joining the United States Senate, he had voted ‘present’ (instead of ‘yea’ or ‘nay’) 130 times, sometimes dodging difficult issues.” Go to any conservative blog, and you’ll find many similar critiques, dating to well before the 2008 election.
P.S.: Westen also finds Obama’s core argument that his health care reform will “bend the cost curve” to be an “unbelievable and even more uninspiring claim.” Common ground! …