Obama's one-term presidency

Barack Obama may end up being a one-term president — if he lasts that long, says Roger Simon at Politico. "He might be forced to pull a Palin and resign before his first term is over," because the man just does not "understand what savvy first-term presidents need to understand." To get reelected, you have to stay on message no matter what, pay attention to the polls, and, "when it comes to doing what is right versus doing what is expedient, you do what is expedient so that you can get reelected and do what is right in the second term." Obama breaks those rules time and again — most recently when, instead of ducking the toxic debate over the Ground Zero mosque, Obama inadvisably lent "the weight of the presidency to speaking out for what is right." Nice sentiment, but wrong move. Here, an excerpt:

The problem for Obama is that he appears to have taken seriously all the "change" stuff he promised during his campaign. And he has been unable to make the transition from candidate to president. A candidate says, as Bobby Kennedy did, "Some men look at things the way they are and ask why? I dream of things that are not and ask why not?" A president says: "What do the polls say?"

A recent CNN poll found that 68 percent of Americans do not want a mosque built close to ground zero. Which should mean: end of story...

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Maybe Obama is disconnected. After all, as a former professor of constitutional law, he actually knows what the Constitution says. His opponents have no such fetters. They know what they want the Constitution to say: yes to guns, no to gay marriage and never to mosques close to hallowed ground, though churches and synagogues are okay.

Read the full article at Politico.