President Obama was already suffering one of the worst imaginable months for an incumbent president in an election year – including a dismal jobs report and declining factory orders, falling approval ratings (including in swing states), the overwhelming victory of Governor Scott Walker in Wisconsin, the president’s widely ridiculed claim the private sector is “doing fine,” Bill Clinton’s various apostasies, the realization that Obama might be outspent in this election by Mitt Romney, and a major speech in Ohio that was panned even by sympathetic liberals. (Jim Geraghty provides a nice summary and analysis here.)
But it may be that the first half of June was a walk in the park compared to the latter part of the month. Because two events – one which just happened and one that will happen next week – may turn out to be powerful, and even crippling, body blows to the president.
The first one is the burgeoning “Fast and Furious” scandal, which has now been elevated from a secondary story to a major one. The president’s assertion of executive privilege is without foundation–a transparent effort to protect his attorney general, and possibly himself, from a legitimate congressional inquiry about a scandalous policy failure. The more this story unwinds, the more obvious this will become.
The man who promised us a “new standard of openness” and the “most transparent and accountable administration in history,” who said his administration would create “an unprecedented level of openness in government” and would “work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration” is now engaged in what could reasonably be construed to be a cover up. (If you’d like your belly laugh for the day, you might take a look at this document, Open Government 2.0 (!), put out by the Department of Justice – which claims, “The Department of Justice is committed to achieving the president’s goal of making this the most transparent administration in history.”)
This is Obama’s first bona fide, full-scale scandal. The president, with his assertion of executive privilege, has now placed himself at the center of the storm. And he’s done so with less than 140 days before the election. One can only imagine what the administration has to hide in order for Obama to have done what he did.
In addition, next week, the Supreme Court will in all likelihood announce its decision on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act. If the Court overturns the ACA, in whole or in part, it will be devastating to the president. After all, his signature domestic achievement — one which dominated American politics for much of Obama’s first term — will not only have been judged to be unconstitutional; it will also have proven to be a colossal waste of the country’s time and energy. And even if the Court doesn’t overturn the Affordable Care Act, it will thrust to the fore what presidential scholar George C. Edwards III calls “perhaps the least popular major domestic policy passed in the last century” (which helps explain why the president rarely speaks about this “achievement” in the run-up to the election).
Elections are rarely decided in June, and this one won’t be, either. But history may look back at this as the month when the president fell behind Romney and never fully recovered.
We’ll know soon enough.
As a Cohen I would like to offer a blessing to the President: May your July make your June look like a stroll in the park on a beautiful spring afternoon.
RepubliCons whistle past the graveyard. The Latinos will bury you in November. Florida, Texas, Arizona, and Nevada will go to the Democrats.The Dems will retain control of the Senate and gain control of the House. Then all you nutball tea party types and crawl back under the rocks from whence you came. LOL
Eric Holder is contemptible. He's a corrupt racist with an axe to grind and an in-your face attitude that makes him seem like Obama's more-evil twin. Eric Holder needs to be in a jail cell. He has so corrupted the Justice Department that it may be wise to burn the whole thing to the ground and start over.
I could not agree with you more. And the fact that the Left calls us "racist" for feeling that way makes me sick. This administration is destroying race relations along with everything in this country, and I am sick to death of it. The Left can go jump off a cliff – all people of good will and a sense of common human decency, unite against this most corrupt administration in US history! They make Bush's excesses look like a child's birthday party by comparison.
The election was decided last summer when the president proved to be a welcher during the debt ceiling talks.
No, no, no! As progressive pundits have explained, the demise of Obamacare would be good for the President because…because…well, just because!
The President's awful June? nYou mean the one where the president slapped Republicans in the face on immigration and they just sat and took it, with their biggest complaints being that it's only a temporary measure and that they sure wish he'd have consulted with them before making his decision? The same June where his challenger had a choice between the path of human decency and the appeasement of fringe racists and chose to walk the line? Is that the June you're talking about? n nThere is no amount of wishing that will make Obama into all of the bad things that most of you seem to wish that he was. nNo amount of explaining can change the fact that that while the President and many Democrats and Republicans were standing up for human decency, conservative Republicans killed immigration reform in the Senate. Not only is does this exhibit the difference in morality between the current left versus the current right, but it's a stupid strategy for the right. By cementing their hold over their base, they frayed the already-thin tendon connecting them to any hope of attracting significant support from immigrant communities, potentially for a generation.
Yawn. n nPete "Baghdad Bob" Wehner keeps claiming every month is the worst ever of the Obama presidency. Yet somehow, the GOP gains never seem to materialize if the opinion polls are to be believed. As of today, Romney keeps trailing Obama in Ohio, Florida, Virginia, Colorado, Nevada and Iowa according to GOP-friendly RealClearPolitics.com. Could it be that voters have not forgotten that the worst global depression since the 1930s started while Wehner's former boss George W. Bush was still in office? n n"Obama still hasn't cleaned up the mess he inherited from us! Vote Republican!" n nMARCU$
The most unbelieveable may still happen – if under 30 year olds vote overwhelmingly for Obama again – and against their own futures!
According to a SCOTUS precedent (espy), Exec Privilige doesn't even apply. One hopes Boehner has the guts to have a suit before SCOTUS BEFORE the end of their term next Thursday.
We have been governed by the Faculty Lounge at Harvard University, since January 2009. The President chose academics over experience in his close advisors and the result is obvious. He allowed a liberal congress to draft, what he considered the most important legislation of his term in office, the Affordable Care Act. The Press gave him the most biased, sycophant coverage leading up to the vote one could imagine. ABC News gave him almost 6 hours of coverage, one night, including a Townhall Meeting held in the White House. n nWe elected a man with the least amount of experience any Chief Executive has ever had, for reasons which today seem rather trivial. Not only did we elect the first black President, in the hopes that we would put race behind us, but this same president has increased the racial divide and his inexperience has put the country in really dire straights. n nThis may be the month historians look at, but it's been a slow, steady, drop to this level.
yes, yes, yes. just like the scott walker victory would be a boon for him as well…funny to see those stories written after every ugly moment. black is white…well, er, you know what I mean
It's one "DOPE FIEND MOVE" after another by the smug arrogant *rick in the White House.
Did anyone one notice the "DOPE FIEND MOVE" of an advertisement, diner with Barack and Obama. I wouldn't an apatite sitting with those creeps. If I did I'd have a hard time holding my food down. Their desperation and arrogance is repulsive.
Transparent alright: transparently criminal! Considering how ruthless this administration has proved capable of ridding itself of liability (Van Jones springs quickly to mind), one can only muse as to what the administration is trying to hide. They can't be looking for a fight- especially resurrecting the ghost of George Bush- thats a loser to begin with. Perhaps the genius in the White House isn't so smart after all. Perhaps he's downright stupid. Then again it just may be that he is indeed guilty.
The Obama Regime's transparency looks more like a black hole. Obama is like a disease that is infecting America right now and we need to get rid of this disease in November so we can start healing again.
Actually Gallup has found that most elections are decided by June. It's just that the yelling doesn't stop for another 4 months. Obama is at 46% in the head-to-head and 47% in approval. That projects to a 4-6 point loss in November.