President Barack Obama has already left his job emotionally, and "doesn't care enough to fake it" as he's no longer worried about keeping up appearances, says a scathing opinion piece in The Telegraph.
"President Obama has emotionally checked out of his job a couple of years early, it seems,"
writes The Daily Caller's Matt K. Lewis in his column for the British publication Saturday.
"Candidates for president who brazenly assume they are the inevitable victor are sometimes accused of “measuring the drapes” for the White House," Lewis writes. "Obama, conversely, seems to be prematurely packing his bags in hopes for an early departure."
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Fox News poll shows that Lewis is hardly alone in believing this.
Out of 1,057 voters polled, 41 percent said Obama does not want to be in office, while 52 percent think he does. And the numbers came in rather evenly divided, with 47 percent of independents, 44 percent of Republicans and 37 percent of Democrats saying they think Obama is tired of being in office.
Lewis noted that the first family is already believed to be in escrow on
a home in Rancho Mirage, Calif., in a gated community where Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, and Bing Crosby once lived, Lewis said, and identifying California as a future home for Obama is "perhaps telling."
The news comes on reports about how the president has been spending time with celebrities and intellectuals, said Lewis, and "the degree to which he is now phoning it in — sleepwalking perfunctorily through his second term — is astonishing."
But in recent days, he said, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down, the situation in the Gaza Strip has worsened, and migrant children are creating a humanitarian crisis on the southern border. In addition, Christians in Mosul were given the choice to convert to Islam or flee.
But meanwhile, Obama played golf, went to fundraisers, ate barbecue, and almost appeared on the comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night television show.
The show interview was canceled, said White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, "in part related to the challenges of doing a comedy show in the midst of some of these other more serious matters that the president’s dealing with in the international scene.”
Lewis said it is ironic that Obama won in 2008 because of his perceived ability to act as a
leader, and was re-elected.
"But today, one wonders if Obama even has the energy left to summon some of the old magic that got him elected," said Lewis.
He admitted that President George W. Bush also missed big moments when he should have been on the job, especially following Hurricane Katrina.
But, Lewis said, it doesn't appear that Obama is worried about appearing out of touch, but instead is shown publicly playing golf.
"Fair or not, playing golf has a way of making one look simultaneously elitist and aloof," said Lewis. "Obama tends to dismiss such cautionary tales."
But Obama, said Lewis, is "not dumb" and can launch "an effective propaganda campaign when he wants to."
The series of "bad optics, though, is akin to what PR professionals call "political malpractice," and the only thing that makes sense is that Obama has checked out early, he notes.
"If Nero fiddled while Rome burned, then Obama is dining out, golfing, and raising money while the world collapses," concluded Lewis.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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