'Gifted Oratory' Not Enough to Save Obama's Porkulus Scam

Dude, where'd my halo go?

Poor little Baracky, reduced to fearmongering.

Republicans tried to push back against the ballooning size of President Barack Obama's economic recovery plan Wednesday, even as he warned that the financial crisis will turn into "a catastrophe" if the bill isn't passed quickly.

Whatever happened to hope? Two weeks in and the guy is warning of a catastrophe. Actually, the biggest catastrophe I've seen so far is his cabinet.

Meanwhile, the man of gifted oratory is somehow losing the message war even though Republican leader Rush Limbaugh has been on vacation all week.

At this crucial juncture in the push to pass an economic recovery package, President Obama finds himself in the most unlikely of places: He is losing the message war.

Despite Obama’s sky high personal approval ratings, polls show support has declined for his stimulus bill since Republicans and their conservative talk-radio allies began railing against what they labeled as pork barrel spending within it.

I beg to differ. Talk radio may have something to do with it, but the more the public has seen and heard about this crap sandwich, the less popular it is. Americans have come to realize spending our way out of a recession isn't going to help the economy. How else do you explain a 37% approval?

In Obama’s own words in an NBC interview, it’s his job to “get this thing back on track.”

Already, he’s trying – rolling out Michelle Obama to talk stimulus Wednesday, Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday (at a train station, no less) and sitting down with key senators one-on-one.

But this is unfamiliar turf for a team that achieved near epic status for its communication skills during the presidential campaign. They’ve rarely ever had to play catch-up.

With the president’s gifted oratory and a technologically savvy team, the Obama camp was able to seize control of the national conversation as early as April and never fully relinquish it right through his Inaugural Address two weeks ago.

Gifted oratory? Since when is a stammering series of uhhhs and ums considered gifted oratory?

To be sure, some of Obama’s headaches stem from the normal dysfunction that occurs when a White House is in transition. Phones don’t work, chains of command are fuzzy, and there are formalities that need tending to.

But the Obama team also made its own mistakes. The president’s troubled cabinet nominees added to the cacophony that at times drowned out the White House economic messages in the past two weeks.

And it seems more apparent each day that the nascent Obama Administration isn’t fully prepared for the task at hand.

In other words, they're totally in over their heads. Whatever happened to the most seamless and smooth transition ever? Was it all just hype?