COLLISION COVERAGE - AT 6:08 P.M. ET:  The great Michael Barone writes of the situation that's developed, in the age of Obama, when liberal dreams collide with public opinion.  The result is not pretty, even if you're in good hands:

In the Bella Center on the south side of Copenhagen and in the Senate chamber on the north side of the Capitol, we’re seeing what happens when liberal dreams collide with American public opinion. It’s like what happens when a butterfly collides with the windshield of a speeding sport utility vehicle. Splat...

...Barack Obama, who seemed so confident of his powers as he prepared for his inauguration, evidently believed that he could persuade Americans to support left-of-center policies that they had never favored before.

Yeah, that's the problem, isn't it?  Those nasty citizens out there.   With opinions.  Is that legal?

The Copenhagen conclave seems to be unable to produce the promised binding treaty committing 100-plus nations to reduce carbon emissions. It seems likely to kick the can down the road to 2012.

One reason is that the leaders of China and India are unwilling to slow down the economic growth that has been lifting millions out of poverty in order to avert a disaster predicted by climate scientists who, we now know from the Climategate e-mails, have been busy manipulating data, suppressing evidence and silencing anyone who disagrees.

Another is that American voters have shown a growing skepticism of such predictions. The cap-and-trade bill that Obama hoped to brag about in Copenhagen now clearly has no chance of passage in the Senate.

And that is one of the key pieces of legislation in the Dem library.

There is still some chance that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid can corral 60 Democratic votes for whatever health care bill he unveils. But it’s looking increasingly unlikely — and increasingly politically suicidal for some of those 60 Senate Democrats.

Bill Clinton has told those Democrats that they’d be better off politically passing something rather than nothing. But his own job rating swelled only after his health care proposals failed to pass.

Hmm.  A bit of forgotten history.

“What’s really exceptional at this stage of Obama’s presidency,” writes Andrew Kohut, the Pew Research Center’s respected pollster, “is the extent to which the public has moved in a conservative direction on a range of issues. These trends have emanated as much from the middle of the electorate as from the highly energized conservative right. Even more notable, however, is the extent to which liberals appear to be dozing as the country has shifted on both economic and social issues.”

By the way, that last development is actually an old story.  We even saw it in the 1950s.  Once many liberals got over their infatuation with Adlai Stevenson, who lost to Eisenhower in both '52 and '56, they essentially dropped out of politics.  I mean, my dear, what is there left after Adlai?  Working people?  People who don't read The Times?  People who eat hamburgers?

Obama first came to national attention in 2004 by promising to heal partisan, ideological and racial divisions. Like the other two Democratic presidents elected in the last 40 years, he campaigned in the center and started off governing on the left. In Copenhagen and on Capitol Hill we are seeing the results. Splat.

COMMENT:  And may the splat continue to splatter through next year's elections.

December 21, 2009