Kathryn Lopez - Vanity

Kathryn Lopez

If Carly Simon were a conservative, she might be writing, "You're so vain, you probably think this White House is below you," to accompany the next big tea party rally. Some of those who try to make some sense -- or science -- of politics for a living have been scratching their heads about President Obama lately. There was the ostentatious vacation, followed by the apparent boredom with the Iraq address that he didn't even have to give, and certainly not in the way that he did -- as a formal, primetime, Oval Office event. There was the wading (botched and incoherent) into the Ground Zero mosque debate. There is the constant belittling of his Republican critics, lowering the office of the president to attack the largely unknown House minority leader, John Boehner. If you were a White House political strategist, you might be bewildered and dismayed, never mind stressed. If you are a Democrat in the unfortunate position of running for re-election, you're running far away from wherever the commander in chief is, to the best of your ability -- and your integrity, if that's of concern to you. In short, none of this has proven to be smart politics, certainly not in the short term, at a time when the Democrats are sinking and could use a leader to lift them up -- or at least not make it worse. Read more here:

Kathryn Lopez - Vanity