The Wages of Spin

The problem is not that Obama has not been selling. He has never stopped selling. The problem is that the American people aren't buying it -- because they are not buying him. The American people are not foolish; the problem is not with the sales pitch. The problem is, in part, the product. As Obama himself once said, a pig with lipstick is still a pig. But the deeper problem is that so many American people no longer find the salesman credible.

The most important product the Obama campaign sold was not a package of legislative proposals. It was Obama himself. Obama was sold as a transformational figure, a savior from ruin. The intensity of hatred for Bush was transferred into the intensity of adoration for Obama, who would deliver us from the Bush wilderness. Obama was "lightworker," better than Jesus. If anyone wants to remember the fervent messianic expectation that surrounded the Obama candidacy, take a stroll down memory lane.

The Obama campaign made a calculated deal. Obama's accomplishments were meager for a presidential candidate. Hillary Clinton was a formidable opponent. The only way to win was to make Obama a movement candidate. Obama had to be viewed as a messiah; otherwise he would not be elected. So the campaign allowed Obama-veneration, even encouraged it. Although his record was fiercely partisan, he was spun as above the sordid partisan plane. Although he had no substantial executive experience, he was spun as so magnificently competent that he would bring government to solve its most intractable problems. Although he had little foreign policy credibility, he was spun as the redeemer of America's global reputation.

He spun, and spun, and spun. The moment he won the primary would be seen, he foretold, as "the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs for the jobless . . . when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal . . . when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on earth."

These promises are simply too much. They are dishonest. Obama could never deliver on them. The Obama camp ran their campaign in such a way that they won the election by dooming the presidency. Of course there is nothing new in politicians promising more than they can deliver. But Obama committed this political sin on such a gargantuan scale that it ought to be named after him. Let Christian politicians take note: never promise so much that your failed promises will cripple your administration.

Obama admitted to Jon Stewart that he knew (he says that he was advised of this after the election) that his supporters would inevitably become quickly disillusioned. It's hard to believe he would not have known this during the campaign as well. Heck, I knew it. Obama spun himself as a once-in-a-generation transformational figure, when in truth he was just another liberal politician without any particularly new ideas or new approaches. The truth catches up to you.

The Democrats have paid the wages of Obama's spin. Independents and moderate Republicans who voted for Obama learned that they had been sold a counterfeit. Now the greater portion of Americans will not care what Obama says until they believe that he is genuine. Obama can no longer persuade the American people, because he has lost the President's most valuable commodity: credibility.

Nicholas Kristof wrote recently that Obama should turn from the "prose" of governing to the "poetry" of campaigning on behalf of his accomplishments. With a "better product to sell" than the opposition, he should improve his "salesmanship" by demonstrating his emotional engagement with the issues. He should "start sweating -- and slugging" at the bully pulpit.

Conservatives should hope that Obama follows this advice, since it would deepen the disaster. Obama doesn't need any more Greek columns, no Vero Possumus seal, no Abraham Lincoln paraphernalia. No bit lip, no false tears, no sweating or anything that is not true to who he is. Obama's actions in the Presidency have not matched the costume he wore in the campaign. Americans will not trust him, will not believe him, will not be persuaded by him, until they believe he's no longer performing.

Obama doesn't need more theatrics. He needs to show America he's not an actor.

The Life in the Marketplace of Ideas column appears weekly on Mondays.