We are starting to see stories on the political websites that are putting words to the doubts and the fear that the Democrats are starting to feel regarding the direction that President Obama is taking his party and the country.  These stories have still not made it into the main stream press.  Compare reactions to the address to a Joint Session of Congress could not be more different.  With a two point change in polls before and after the speech (a statistical nondifference), the main stream media outlets have been reporting that the President has regained momentum, he is changing minds, opposition is softening.  These declarations seem more hopeful that true reporting.

In some ways, President Obama is starting to resemble in some ways the Legend of the Pied Piper.  According to the legend, a man was hired to get the rats out of a town.  He played a pipe or a flute and lured the rats to their death.  But the town refused to pay the agreed price.  Therefore, while the town was attending church, the pied piper played again this time luring the towns children.  The legend differs on what happens to the children according to whether they are also lured to their death, or to a cave or just disappear.

But there are some differences to the legend too.  In the legend the Pied Piper was hired to perform a job and he did it. 

Right now there is a feeling in the country that they were duped by President Obama.  As a candidate, he denied that he was a liberal.  He scoffed at anyone who said that he would be radical.  But at the same time he said that he wanted to “change” things and he admitted he wanted to redistribute some of Joe the Plumber’s income to others.  During the campaign, there were two views of the candidate:  one presented by Obama and another view that was depicted by the friends, acquaintances, and past positions which just seemed to fantastic to be true.

At this time, the President is suffering a believability problem.  He gives fantastic speeches, but people are starting to say so what.  In July, the President attended a conference call with left wing bloggers to try to energize them even more to support his proposed healthcare reforms proposals.  During the call he had to admit that he was not familiar with a specific part of the bill which contradicted one of his often quoted lines in his speeches. 

This was an early example where Obama’s speeches did not seem to match reality.  Over the last week, the President has seemed to make it even more about him.  During his 60 Minute appearance, he said that he wanted to stay President for awhile so he had every incentive to get this right because he would “own it.”  This argument is just silly.  In other words, at a time when the President’s believability is being called into question and the President is being caught in contradiction after contradiction he seems to saying “believe me.”  So instead of trying to just win the argument he is saying trust me I will get this right.

Is President Obama in denial about the debate going on?

Most political consultants would advise the President to take a step back and not be on the television so much.  In a matter of a eight months, he seems to have been able to get to where it took Bush to get in 6-7 years.  Of course, Bush had the left wing press beating a constant drum beat that Obama has not had.  In fact, we would argue that President Obama has been able to do it even though the left wing media has been refusing to report some of the more damaging stories.

So if we were to retell the story of the pied piper to fit the current political climate it would go like this:

The United States of America hired a pied piper named Barack Obama to lead our country.  Some wanted drastic change, but others took him for his word that he was not a radical.  He was hired for the job, but he was unable to do what he promised.  In fact, many believed that he misrepresented what he could do or what he would do and so the country refused to either pay him or follow him.  He played his pipe and the country refused to follow him.  As a result, President Obama went to Washington D.C. and again played his pipe and the Democrats loved it and they followed him.  As we leave the story, President Obama is dancing and playing the pipe and all the Democrats in Congress are following him to the edge of a cliff.  We do not know how the story will end.  Only time will tell.