Dog Day Afternoons

We've just finished the month of August--the dog days. Lots of heat and little relief. And that just about sums up President Obama's month as well. It was a tough summer for the 44th president. Take a look:

• Town hall meetings across the country, designed to let lawmakers show they were on top of the health care bill, erupted into acrimony as voters gave them an earful about the massive spending plan
• Voters used the healthcare issue as a springboard to air their grievances about a government that spends too much and does too little 
• The President's vaunted "cash for clunkers" program became a metaphor for an administration that can't seem to get anything right--much like Jimmy Carter's Rose Garden strategy in 1980 showed him to be just another hostage of Iran's mullahs
• Casualties in Afghanistan-the war Candidate Obama staked out as his-began to rise in the absence of any clear military strategy
• Attorney General Eric Holder stirred up a hornet nest by announcing a special investigation (yet another) into CIA interrogation techniques from 6 years ago-another Obama genuflection to his ideological base
• The FDIC, going broke after  a rash of bank failures this year, is looking for a GM-type bailout, a potential last straw for voters who are sick of hearing the word bailout.

You need to connect these dots to see what's happened to Barack Obama's presidency. In a couple of months he has managed to squander the enormous political capital built up in his amazing run to the White House. The Rassmussen Daily Presidential Tracking Poll this morning  has only 46% of Americans approving of his job performance.

The bad news is that it gets worse for the President in September. Congress reconvenes to pick up healthcare reform. After a summer of town hall meetings, Republicans are ready to move to the center on pre-existing conditions and other issues. Moderate Democrats are even looking at tort reform to get Republicans on board. That leaves the 20% or so of Americans who think of themselves as liberals and want Euro-health. So the President will have to decide whether he wants to be president of all the people of just cheerleader-in-chief for the radical left.

Similarly the President's own commander in Afghanistan ended August with a call for a new strategy. Will Barack Obama infuriate his political base and show the courage that George Bush did by calling  for an Iraq-like surge?

And to drive home the point about out-of-control federal spending, a coalition of conservative groups has ripped a page from the liberals' book and plans a massive march in Washington on September 12. 

In the absence of any White House leadership (Sorry, Mr. President, buzzing into a town hall meeting on the way to vacation is cheer leading, it's not nation leading) will Democrats use parliamentary tricks like reconciliation and simply ram a healthcare bill through the Capitol?

One gets the feeling that President Obama enjoyed the chase of running for president more than he enjoys actually being president. This autumn we may find out exactly how much more.

Just thought you might like to know.