For the first time since his emergence in 2004 at the Democratic Convention in Boston, the national news media–long in the tank for Obama—has begun to run him through the ringer all other presidents have experienced.

Up to now Obama was immune to this process because the media is so invested in the Rise and Success of the first African-American President of the United States. Indeed, the so-called Mainstream Media still wants him to succeed and to win re-election in 2012; his failure as President or failure to be re-elected would be seen as a collective failure of the Left’s life-long dream of electing the first black president.

But the bumbling, stumbling, aimless, naïve, reverse-course-all-the-time Obama Presidency has hit the skids and even the media can no longer restrain itself.

Just this week Obama has:

• Gone nuts over a very popular Arizona immigration law and then tried to get “ahead” of this explosive immigration issue by symbolically dispatching 1200 National Guardsmen down to the Arizona border;

• After being viewed as passive about the BP leak, he suddenly announced he was going down to the Gulf on Friday;

• After insulting–deliberately–the Israeli Prime Minister a few months ago and thus straining relations with Israel, the White House has now reversed course and invited Mr. Netanayhu back to DC for another round of talks; undoubtedly Obama’s plummeting status with a base Democrat Party constituency–American Jews–has slapped him upside the head and made him realize that his previous policy was, like almost all of his policies, ill-conceived;

• Same thing with Afghan President Kharzai: Team Obama at first demonized him, leaked mud against him, and thus almost drove him to join the Taliban. Then they realized that their policy was a disaster so they reversed course and made nice with Kharzai.

• Obama is so self-obsessed that he sees everything as it relates only him: “I wake up to it (the Oil spill) every day and go to bed thinking about it.” Me…me…me. My…my…my. Mine…Mine…Mine. I…I…I.

• In other words, Obama does not have a clue how to be a president. He is a creation of a PC-obsessed media and culture.

• Merit and experience count for nothing among the Left; it is all gender and racial politics and quotas, all designed to redress past wrongs.

• The Left is killing our country. But this was inevitable after eight disastrous Bush years which discredited conservatism and opened the door for these misfits to re-gain federal power.

• In sum, the Obama Presidency is being exposed for what it is: an empty vessel piloted by a guy who can’t speak without a TelePrompter and who just follows the Western European anti-American, anti-free enterprise liberal socialistic model.

What a mess we are in! And it will take a long, long time to dig our way out.

Thursday, April 8, 2010, 2:37PM

Imus Drove By Harvard Once. John LeBoutillier Went In. Former Congressman John LeBoutillier is welcome on this show anytime, even though he no longer serves in the House of Representatives. Unlike some other shows that refuse to book him, here at Imus in the Morning we’re not interested in talking to “the same hacks” and a bunch of “dopes” every week.

Granted, LeBoutillier, who now writes for Newsmax, was drinking some Hater-Ade this morning, telling Imus that if President Obama’s health care bill was so great, he wouldn’t still be trying to convince Americans of that notion.

It’s difficult for Obama to call this a “victory,” said LeBoutillier. “His Party’s going to get slaughtered in November. They’re going to get creamed.”

While they may not lose the majority in the House, LeBoutillier predicted Democrats would lose at least 30 to 40 seats, and that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid would lose his reelection bid in Nevada.

Unwilling to concede Imus’s point that passing the health care bill saved Obama’s presidency, LeBoutillier would say only, “He saved the short term viability of his leadership.”

Which, Imus admitted, was a much better way of putting it. “That’s why you went to Harvard,” he told his guest. “I drove by Harvard, once. I went to see a doctor there.”

Speaking of smarty pants, Journalist David Remnick told Imus yesterday that, based on his extensive writing about Obama in his new book The Bridge, he considers the President center-left politically. LeBoutillier believes Obama will move to the center to get what he wants, as he did during his campaign against Sen. John McCain.

“He ran to the Left to get nominated, ran right back to the middle to get elected,” said LeBoutillier. “They all do it. But I think in his heart of hearts, he’s more liberal than many people would like to believe.”

Whatever one thinks about Obama, it’s pretty clear that another world leader with a funny name—Afghan President Hamid Karzai—has gone insane, declaring he would join the Taliban if he felt too much pressure from the U.S.

“He has to constantly look like he’s not a sock puppet of the United States,” said LeBoutillier. “Then I think he calls up Hillary and Obama and says, ‘I have to say these things to survive at home, but I’m still your friend.’”

By the way, LeBoutillier added, “Welcome to the Middle East. This is what they do. They play both sides all the time.”

Right. And we don’t know any politicians in the U.S. who do that.

-Julie Kanfer