Politics
First it was his approval rating, then his Democratic majority in Congress, and now Obama is even having it handed to him on the basketball court! The President took an elbow from the director of programs for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (suspicious, say I) during a game of 5-on-5, earning 12 stitches for his efforts. It's tough out there for a liberal.
I don't want to take the metaphor too far, but it's as fine an opportunity as any to note the theme of this president taking it on the chin (or lip) for and from his closest supporters in recent days. Having ushered through a series of radically leftist policy initiatives (universal health care, stimulus spending, finance regulation) - always through grueling political contests - Obama has now been attacked by the left for disappointing their expectations.
I may disagree with Obama's policies, but it is unimaginable to claim that he has not pursued - with great determination, success and pride - the most liberal agenda in recent memory. A more treacherous and less grateful cabal of curmudgeons could not be found than among these whiny liberal elites. It's lonely at the top, Obama.
But I suspect this president is going to spend more time than he expected licking his wounds over the next two years.
This is also another teaching moment about the difference between the elites and the masses with regard to health-care.
12 Stitches? If most any of us ordinary Joes (or Jills, for that matter) got a split lip in a basketball pickup game, we'd have been lucky to get even 6 sutures to close it up. If we'd wanted the special fine "cosmetic" suture material and the dozen stitches, it would have required an argument with the attending emergency room physician (or, more likely, the PA or NP), and then a real fight with our insurance company over the costs that were in excess of what they deem to be reasonable and customary.
Another case of our ruling class expecting and receiving a different quality of medical care than us ordinary folks.
Obama shouldn't worry too much about those captious liberal elites and their rhetorical elbows--once an actual set of serious GOP presidential contenders comes to the fore, the leftwing chattering class will turn with its usual hive-like avidity to demonizing them around the clock, and will forget all about its Obama-kvetching, which is a merely interstitial phenomenon.
Besides, if we have any luck, Obama's worries about how bitterly vast swaths of voters in key states dislike his policies will overshadow any temptation to hand-wring over what's eating Frank Rich and his ilk.
Of course, we will not mention all the conspiracy theories pouring out of the lefties in the media on why Obama is tanking.....