I understand how you feel. Washington can be a cold and lonely place when the Georgetown cocktail set figures out that the Emperor has no clothes. Imagine the surprise of the cognoscenti when they found out that Obama was not only not Black Jesus, but he turned out to be Black Jimmy Carter; indecisive, in over his head.

Politics, dear David, is about base and for some odd reason you’ve decided to piss on yours. Following the Bush-McCain game plan in Afghanistan, slogging it out in Iraq, dropping the public option for healthcare and backing-off trying the terrorists in civil court all aggravate the very voters that supported you.

David Axelrod

At the same time, your big government-big spending, big debt and high tax policies scared away moderates and some conservatives who had soured on Bush and voted for you because they thought you were serious about change and didn’t think that meant liberal change. I guess that’s the real problem. You thought the last Presidential election was a repudiation of conservatism and that Americans have finally seen the wisdom of more public spending and higher taxes.

Au contraire. Voters repudiated George W. Bush, Katrina, a fumbled war in Iraq, Enron and crony capitalism. The American people remain right of center on economic and foreign policy and defense issues. That’s the point you missed.

Your current strategy is a loser; it pleases neither your left-wing base nor the political center that you need because you are governing without any guiding principal but an unfailing belief in a profligate Federal Government.