I’m paraphrasing, but only slightly:
“The mistake of my first term – couple of years – was thinking that this job was just about getting the policy right. And that’s important. But the nature of this office is also to tell a story to the American people that gives them a sense of unity and purpose and optimism, especially during tough times.
“It’s funny – when I ran, everybody said, well he can give a good speech but can he actually manage the job?”
Well… no.
The Democrats’ fallback position, again and again, is: “Well, people would agree with our policies if we could just make them understand our policies.” The truth is exactly the opposite, of course. People do understand their policies, which is why they disagree with them. All Obama talked about for a couple of years was Obamacare — whoops, I mean the “Affordable Care Act” — and most Americans hate it. That’s not in spite of his actions. That’s because of them.
I realize it’s only Charlie Rose, but this is just another example of the journalistic negligence of the last half-decade. With the exception of Bret Baier and the occasional local guy from St. Louis or wherever, Obama’s interviewers never call him on this stuff. He babbles the same stale crap over and over, and it’s obviously not true, and they just… let him.
Maybe they think they’ve helping him. Maybe they’re scared of being called racists. Maybe they’re just too stupid to know any better.
I realize none of these things are mutually exclusive.