Peggy Noonan: Obama 'Is a Loser'

As this debt crisis unfurls, Peggy Noonan has realized something surprising: “Nobody loves Obama,” she writes in the Wall Street Journal. “This is amazing because every president has people who love him,” even Bill Clinton and George W. Bush on their worst days. But not Barack Obama. “His support is grim support,” because unlike Clinton and Bush, he never seems the least bit genuine.

“The secret of Mr. Obama is that he isn't really very good at politics … because he doesn't really get people,” Noonan theorizes. Just look at this debt ceiling debate. Obama never tried to make a moving case for the liberal ideal. “In a crisis, he was merely sly. And no one likes sly.” This looming defeat proves that “his foes have given him too much mystique. He is not a devil, an alien, a socialist. He is a loser.” (More Peggy Noonan stories.)