Charles Krauthammer calls President Obama "the comeback kid" for being able to give some direction to legislation basically going in the opposite direction from his own former political position.
Victor Davis Hanson, on the other hand, notes that Obama's current policies have morphed into George Bush's policies in key economic, domestic and foreign policy areas.
Is it a "comeback" to adopt policies previously opposed? Would George Bush have been called "the comeback kid" if after his party's 2006 "shellacking", he had agreed to phased withdrawal of troops from Iraq but increased the withdrawal time period to six years and smuggled in some military projects the Left didn't like? Or repealed individual tax cuts, but got an extension to 2014 on dividend and capital gains tax reductions? "Comeback" would probably not have been the key term used to describe his political transformation.
President Obama is continuing many of President George W. Bush's policies, but not his political character. How that will play with Obama's base and the American people is still to be seen.
The uncompromising George W. Bush has gone from an approval rating of just 29% in January 2009 to 47% this month--ahead of Barack Obama's current approval ratings. Now, that's what I call a "comeback kid".
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