The One is no more.  As Gov­er­nor Palin noted a few months back, Barack Obama is a Lame Duck.  Now, even Mau­reen Dowd rec­og­nizes this and aban­dons Obama.

The leader who was once a lumi­nes­cent, inspi­ra­tional force is now just a guy in a really bad spot.”–Maureen Dowd

Yep, Mau­reen Dowd has aban­doned Obama, writ­ing “One and Done?” in the New York Times.  This is a must read.  A few highlights:

Obama’s re-election chances depend on paint­ing the Repub­li­cans as dis­re­spect­ful. So why would the White House act dis­re­spect­ful by sched­ul­ing a speech to a joint ses­sion of Con­gress at the exact time when the Repub­li­cans already had a debate planned?

 

And why is the White House so cocky about Obama as a TV draw against quick-draw Rick Perry? As James Carville acer­bically noted, given a choice between watch­ing an Obama speech and a G.O.P. debate, “I’d watch the debate, and I’m not even a Republican.”

 

The White House caved, of course, and moved to Thurs­day, because there’s noth­ing the Repub­li­cans say that he won’t eagerly meet halfway.

 

No. 2 on David Letterman’s Top Ten List of the president’s plans for Labor Day: “Pretty much what­ever the Repub­li­cans tell him he can do.”

 

…Obama can’t turn into F.D.R. for the cam­paign because he aspires to the class that F.D.R. was a trai­tor to; and he can’t turn into Harry Tru­man because he lacks the com­mon touch. He has an acquired elitism.

 

If the lan­guid Obama had not done his usual irri­tat­ing fourth-quarter play, if he had pre­sented a jobs plan a year ago and fought for it, he wouldn’t have needed to ele­vate the set­ting. How will he up the ante next time? A speech from the space station?

 

Obama is still suf­fer­ing from the Speech Illu­sion, the idea that he can come down from the moun­tain, read from a Teleprompter, cast a magic spell with his words and climb back up the moun­tain, while we scurry around and do what he proclaimed.

 

The days of spin­ning illu­sions in a Greek tem­ple in a foot­ball sta­dium are done. The One is danc­ing on the edge of one term.

 

The White House team is flail­ing — react­ing, regroup­ing, retrench­ing. It’s repugnant.

 

After push­ing and shov­ing and cav­ing to get on TV, the president’s advis­ers imme­di­ately began warn­ing that the long-yearned-for jobs speech wasn’t going to be that awe-inspiring.

 

“The issue isn’t the size or the new­ness of the ideas,” one said. “It’s less the sub­stance than how he says it, whether he seizes the moment.”

 

The arc of jus­tice is stuck at the top of a moun­tain. Maybe Obama was not even the per­son he was wait­ing for.