Obama's incompetence, Mort Zuckerman, and the central issues for the 2012 elections.

Mort Zuckerman, editor and chief of US News and World Report and a one time Obama supporter,

. . . . . The results represent a sharp rebuke to President Obama, who interpreted his 2008 "vote for change" as a mandate for changing everything and all at once. Right from the start, he got his priorities badly wrong, sacrificing the need to help create jobs in favor of his determination to pass Obamacare. It was the state of the economy that demanded genius and concentration, and it just did not get it. The president will now have to respond to public anger, not with anger management and, not, please God, with still more rhetoric. . . . . Voters registered their disapproval of Democratic control of Congress and of what the White House promised but failed to deliver. It is apparent that Obama didn't seem to have understood the problems of the average American. He came across as a young man in a grown-up's game—impressive but not presidential. A politician but not a leader, managing American policy at home and American power abroad with disturbing amateurishness. Indeed, there was a growing perception of the inability to run the machinery of government and to find the right people to manage it. A man who was once seen as a talented and even charismatic rhetorician is now seen as lacking real experience or even the ability to stop America's decline. "Yes we can," he once said, but now America asks, "Can he?"

The last two years have exposed to the public the risk that came with voting an inexperienced politician into office at a time when there was a crisis in America's economy, as the nation contended with a financial freeze, a painful recession, and two wars. The Democrats were simply not aggressive enough or focused enough in confronting the profound economic crisis represented by millions of ordinary Americans whose main concern was the lack of jobs.

Jobs have long represented the stairway to upward mobility in America, and the anxiety over joblessness became the dominant concern at a time when financial security based on home equity and pensions was dramatically eroding. No great speech is going to change the fundamental fact that millions of people are either jobless or underemployed at a time when only a quarter of the American population describes the job market as good. . . . .As for the public's hope for bipartisanship, Obama's partisan approach was underlined by putting forth one of the most liberal budget programs in decades. This failure was captured most recently in a New York Times front-page story that reported that for the first 18 months of his presidency, Obama would not meet one-on-one with the Republican leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell. This is not bipartisanship . . . . READ THE FULL [and long] ARTICLE >>>>

Editor's notes: understand that Zuckerman is a liberal journalist but not a radical. He was an enthusiastic Obama supporter back in the day. You will want to read the full article. When finished, you will understand the moderate liberal's angst with regard to Obama and see a "way out" for the president. After two years, Obama remains grossly unqualified in terms of economy. While we might debate this consideration, the fact remains that the perception exists; many see Obama as being "in over his head." He has added to this perception over the course of time. The view will fade significantly if our self repairing economy experiences a break-through. That may be on its way with the GOP congress and the passage of continued tax rates established in the Bush era. But, before the Administration begins its celebration, it needs to appreciate how close it is to the edge of another set of problems created by its own ineptitude, something almost unheard in today's economy, a thing called " inflation."

Inflation is already here. Gas prices have increased more than a dollar per gallon since Obama took office. Basic food prices have increased, on average, between 8 and 10%. Crude oil has risen 55% percent and the Fed is selling 600 billion dollars in Treasury Bonds . Such is inflationary because the money is printed by the Fed, deflating the value of the dollar and inflating prices to make up for this loss of value.

The issues for the coming 2012 election will have to do with national security, the Administration's response to the inflation its own policies are creating and the issues of spending, taxation and a growing government bureaucracy. While unemployment will continue to be a manifest problem, Midknight Review does not believe it will be at the center of the election equation as it was in the past 2010 midterms.

Conclusion: Obama is far from being out of the woods. While he is concentrating on improving job reports, he may be losing the battle on the other issues named above. Time will tell.