Julian Hattem: The Campaign That Never Ends. The Presidency That Never Began

Yep, he nailed it on the head.

Already, it feels like he's back on the trail. Just a month after the election, as the fiscal cliff approaches, President Obama has held just one meeting at the White House with Speaker John Boehner in the last three weeks, yet has taken the time to go to Pennsylvania and Virginia and chat with suburbanites and business owners. From the outside, he's building the consensus that he's looking for in Washington. 

But, but. but---we all thought Himself won the election.

Silly us!

The November election was just a way-stop on his endless campaign. This man possesses zero, nil, no skills required for actually governing. It's a point that many have tried to make about Himself for years. He's a Chicago machine pol, with a couple of years in the Illinois Senate, followed by a couple of years in the US Senate, and then to the White House.

He doesn't negotiate because he doesn't know how to actually hold serious conversations about serious things. He doesn't know how to work with Congress or the states of  the Union, so he issues executive orders and has the Justice Department sue the bejeezus out of anyone who dares go off his script.

He does know how to do one thing: Pander to crowds of disaffected people who look to him as some type of secular Messiah. So, he does that.

It beats working.

Meanwhile, OS encountered some other disaffected people last week:

He enjoys visiting pawn shops and antique malls, a guilty pleasure perhaps. But, he has also purchased some real treasures in these places. Last week OS had two hours free, so off he went to pawn shops in Louisville. He browsed at two, before his free hours expired. The first featured lovely, lovely jewelry--and OS regretted not having enough liquid cash to walk out with one particular ring for the sainted Mrs. OS. It was a dandy!

The second was in a less prosperous neighborhood, to state things diplomatically. For all its loveliness, there are swathes of that fair city which are, well, not prosperous. This pawn shop was flogging a model of a 9mm pistol that sells for well under $200.  There were buyers at the counter, one older black gentleman in particular, eager to buy. The salesman told him "I won't promise you it will be reliable. It may only get one shot off before it jams, and that could be dangerous for you. The brand names we feel confident of start at four to five hundred dollars." The old gent says, "I can't afford that, but I've got to protect my grand-babies from the burglars who are breaking in at night."

He handed over his drivers license for the background check, and the salesman called back to the stockroom for one of the 9mm MaybeItWillFire guns.

There weren't any thugs in the store, just middle-aged and older black folks desperate to protect themselves from the thugs. They aren't criminals--they can legally purchase firearms because they have no criminal records. They used to live in lovely middle-class neighborhoods, where their parents felt no need to lock the doors.

This is Life Under Obama. The Campaign That Never Ends. The Presidency That Never Began.