Obama Doubles His Bet

according to Jonah Goldberg writing in the Houston Chronicle (originally ran in NRO):
Obama continues to let everything ride on bad bet

In 1964, Barry Goldwater gave an uncompromisingly conservative and liberty-loving speech to the Republican Convention. A reporter in the audience couldn't believe his ears. “My God! He's going to run as Barry Goldwater!”

I had a similar reaction to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address....

...So what was Obama's bet? He believed that he was elected to usher in a new progressive era, a new New Deal. Unfortunately for his wager, every significant election since November 2008 has refuted the sagacity of this gamble. In New Jersey, in Virginia and even in Massachusetts, voters have said that is not the change they were looking for. The rosy scenario for Democrats is that they will “only” lose 20 to 30 seats in the coming midterm elections. If we were at the dawn of a new New Deal, you would expect voters to be ratifying Obama's actions. That's what they did for FDR. Not so for BHO.

And yet there the president stands, mocking his opponents and the ignorant rubes who don't understand his system as he says in word and deed, “Let it ride.”

This is just a few paragraphs out of a more detailed article, read it all here.

Another gambler analogy from J.C. Arenas in American Thinker blog:

Obama's gambling problem

Last night, great expectations were abound. With his job approval in free fall and congressional supermajority now belonging to the ages, many pundits expected the president to use the State of the Union address as an opportunity to take a "hard-pivot" to the center of the political spectrum. But rather than walking away from what has thus far been nothing but a losing table, Obama dug in his heels, ordered another vodka martini, and doubled down on radical liberalism....

....The realist would have acknowledged how fortunate he was to learn so much over the last year and cognizant of the reality that there would be much to learn in the future. Going through that learning process would have resulted in the formation of a better leader. But Obama won't be that realist, nor ultimately, that better leader. Unfortunately, last night served as a reminder to this nation that it will continue to be led by the gambler who uncontrollably picks up the dice, convinced that he's just one roll away from regaining all of his chips. But if Obama keeps gambling, we'll be the ones who lose everything.

As always read the the paragraphs in between here.