6 Months Into Second Term, Obama Presidency Getting Stale

Remember this?

Basking in the glow of victory. Reelection soundly in the rearview mirror. Ready to take on the world…

…then reality hit.

Politico’s Glenn Thrush is out this morning with a piece exploring President Obama’s “rapidly aging presidency.”

Thrush reports that President Obama lost interest in working with Republicans and now the public has simply lost interest in him, just 6 months into his second term:

“We normally see a president have about a year to 18 months in the second term to exercise his influence on the domestic front, … but that process has been greatly accelerated here,” said veteran presidential adviser David Gergen.

“Obama has 48 months as president, but six months in, the wind has already gone out of his sails.… The public has completely lost interest,” Gergen added.

In particularly damning quote, an unnamed senior advisor says, “Four more years of the same old s—t” wasn’t exactly going to cut it as a go-to aspirational message.”

Thrush continues to say that Obama’s “middle-aged presidency” has used “almost everything in the presidential-power tool kit — the big set-piece speeches, the “60 Minutes” walk-and-talks, the barnstorming tours, the monthlong charm offensives with GOP senators.”

Therefore, he concludes, the president’s been, at times, “shoved to the margins of the American political debate by more compelling conflicts and story lines…”

Just last November, the American people rehired President Obama for four more years. We don’t expect him to just give up 6 months in.