Obama and Second Chances

The voters who really matter are those who, like me, were willing to give Obama a chance the first time around, but who, after watching his performance over the last four years, are not at all sure that they are willing to give him another.

Many American voters didn’t think Obama deserved to be president in the first place and have no interest in giving him a second chance this time around. Obviously there is no point in the Democrats trying to win them over to their cause. Similarly, there are still lots of Americans who will vote for Obama no matter what—and the Democrats need not waste time or resources persuading them to do what they are going to do anyway. This means that the voters who really matter are those who, like me, were willing to give Obama a chance the first time around, but who, after watching his performance over the last four years, are not at all sure that they are willing to give him another. We aren’t racists or right-wing fanatics. We are just worried—not because we think Obama is a mad socialist or crypto-Muslim, but because we fear he just isn’t up to the job of being president. In short, we are the people that need to be convinced to vote for Obama a second time, because if we don’t vote for him—or simply don’t vote at all—he is in danger of becoming another failed president, like the ill-fated Jimmy Carter.
You don’t have to be a member of the Tea Party to think that President Obama’s four years in office have not exactly been an unqualified success. The same position characterizes the attitude of most thoughtful liberals, as well. The gap between the intoxicating promise of Obama the candidate and the disappointing performance of Obama the president is too palpable for all but the most diehard Obama loyalists to ignore. Hence the acute discomfort among the president’s supporters when Romney revived the old Ronald Reagan line that had been used so tellingly against incumbent Jimmy Carter back in 1980: “Are you better off than you were four years ago?”

Read more: http://www.american.com/archive/2012/september/obama-and-second-chances