Obama Is Bad At Politics?

So argues Ramesh Ponnuru:

Obama never had to fight for and win the votes of people who don’t agree with him. Both his biggest political setback and his biggest political accomplishment — his defeat by Bobby Rush in a 2000 U.S. House primary and his victory over Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008 — came during struggles within a liberal universe.

Alex Massie thinks there is something to this:

Obama struggles to understand why anyone would disagree with him. He lacks the empathy the greatest politicians enjoy (politicians here should not be confused with statesmen). He's not a Reagan or a Clinton or a Blair. He is, in some respects, much more normal than any of them. But he is also a product of his environment and that environment has been wholly liberal ever since he was a child.

Peter Feaver piles on:

For professional politicians, one worthwhile goal may be to describe the policy arguments of your opponents in a manner that they would recognize the arguments as (more or less) their own. … So I would ask: When was the last time President Obama described the views of his opponents in such a fashion? You'll be hard pressed to think of a single example. And until he can do this more consistently, his capacity to persuade the undecided, let alone those who disagree with him, will be quite limited. And if he cannot effectively persuade people who aren't already Obama cheerleaders, it's hard to see how he can lead effectively.

Obama did this constantly during the 2008 debates. In fact, I cannot think of a recent president who has consistently outlined respectfully ideas he disagrees with. It's almost a rhetorical trope, for Pete's sake. And the deficit-cutting deal Obama was willing to strike with Republicans didn't just pay lip service to GOP ideas, it embraced them.

Republicans have simply been unwilling to give Obama anything – even if it means rejecting legislation Republicans have long supported. The drumbeat of hysterical, hyperbolic criticism of the president is an attempt, I suspect, to create a sense of his inevitable doom. Because making a positive argument for a Perry, Romney or Cain is so, well, tough.