He was probably a pretty good community organizer. He’s got the right connections (terrorists, rabble-rousing racist preachers, tin-pot dictators, Chicago political machine), he’s got the shtick, he sounds reasonable, he’s personally magnetic. He’s got his Alinsky studies down pat. He’s got union muscle behind him. I don’t think the demands of actual leadership and governance matter to him one whit, so one can excuse his apparent lack of skills in managing foreign relations with non-Muslim countries, or managing domestic policy in any sense outside the accumulation of power to himself.

But boy has he seriously underestimated Americans. A population unused to its freedoms and with no long history of civilized justice, law and order, might be easily cowed or lulled into giving away those freedoms. But this is America. The land of George Washington, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson. The nation that put down the world-ruling aspirations of Hitler and Imperial Japan first, and expansionist Communist Russia second. Our freedoms were bought at a dear price.

Can’t let a good crisis go to waste

The opportunistic cram-downs of Porkulus and Cap-and-Trade (the Global Warming Tax Bill), with 1000+ pages, under the cover of ‘fixing’ a wounded economy, voted on with no debate and no input from the opposition party before anybody read the bills, AND explicitly against the will of the people — all this had the stench of bullying, theft and graft. In the months following, people have actually read those bills. They’ve also seen an economy sinking further, hardly ‘stimulated’. The administration has been consigned to putting lipstick on a pig, alternately claiming (a) we’re actually recovering now, and (b) it’s Bush’s fault.

Thugocracy

The chumming around with Chavez and Castro; the shady past ties to Alinksy and to high-finance thieves; the serial apologies for America to Muslim dictatorships and to Old Europe (who owe us debts of gratitude they’ll never repay); the accumulation of unaccountable ‘czars’; the cabinet full of tax cheats, political hacks, and hustlers; the blatant takeovers of the banking and auto industries – the latter seemingly mostly to pay off union supporters — all smell to high heaven of a person whose greater ambitions do not particularly include the greater interests of our republic or its citizens. People in greater numbers are now watching what he does and not so much how he sounds.

Overplaying your hand, round 1

By the time the health care takeover plan reached the front burner, Americans had already had enough, and you see the results. There’s a saying : ‘we’ve seen this movie before’. We call it Venezuela. We didn’t like that movie.

He’s gotten his butt kicked on health-care takeover, and Cap-n-Tax is buried in a Senate committee, never to see the light of day. The uproar during the August recess, followed by predictably low-class pushback by unions and other Obamanistas, has driven the poll numbers of Obama and the Democrat label into the dirt, sinking any hope of a glorious cakewalk to permanent rule. Unless they can figure out a way to cheat their way past the people by taking over the census and putting ACORN in charge of elections.

Overplaying your hand, round 2

Now this guy wants to talk to our kids. All of them. With unfiltered access, doing an end-run around parents, and with complicit, fawning packaging (did you see this directive from the Education Youth Indoctrination Secretary ? Did you actually SEE it? OMG! OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG!!!!!) by a school environment dominated through and through with leftism. He surely can do this, although the last couple of days has seen that many districts (but probably no more than 5%, when all is said and done) will opt out, and some parents will pull kids out of school (again, probably a small percentage).

The left has thoroughly dominated the education system, K-thru-College, for decades. Right down to local school boards, even in completely RedState territory. Public schools are, completely literally, leftist indoctrination camps for the young, impressionable minds that are next generation’s voters. American parents have been lulled into complacency, unaware of the fearful magnitude of what is going on in their schools. But parents of school-age children are not what you call a solid Democrat constituency [h/t itrytobenice].

And now Obama has blown it. The tea parties rose, as it were, from the ground, as a result of the Porkulus outrage. In response to the health-care takeover threat, the anti-Obama forces have begun organizing and hardening defenses, finally engaging in new technologies, finally playing hardball. Even Democrat cash cow AARP is in danger from the inside, since millions of dues-paying members hate BambiCare and also vote on leadership.

The left will lose their monopoly on the schools

Americans now feel their kids are being unfairly targeted, thanks to Obama’s stupid move here. He’ll get his speech done, lots and lots of teachers and faculty will use the opportunity to get a little indoctrination in, a few pro-Democrat, pro-Obama warm and fuzzies implanted into the innocent and gullible hearts of our young. But this little stunt will have gained him little, and cost him much.

But he has awakened the Ents. School boards are close to all-powerful, but they are elected on a local level. Most parents and citizens have been asleep at the wheel, especially in Republican territory. Because of this event, we are going to see MASSES of people show up at school board meetings and PTA meetings who never did before, just like the townhalls of August.

They’re going to be asking some questions:

• Why did you let this happen here?
• Why did we elect you anyway if you’re just gonna be a sop to the left?
• You know what? We’re gonna vote you out and get some people who actually CARE about our kids running our school boards.

I should point out one thing that’s true about the upcoming school board meetings that was not true about the townhalls. There will be enough angry citizens attending in those meetings to vote out incumbents in the next election. They won’t require the media, they won’t require the Republican Party. They have kids, their neighbors and friends have kids, and no amount of teacher endorsements, union intimidation, or smooth talking will keep them from turning out ineffective or leftist school board members, the very next election.

I am telling you now, and as far as I know, I am the first to say it. Obama’s circus-stunt flyby of our nation’s public schools on September 8 will end up dealing a fatal blow to the left’s decades-long ownership of the schools in conservative territory. It won’t happen right away, and it will in fact be a long and bloody war. The left is dug in and fortified, and they’ve been playing dirty for as long as anyone can remember. But it will happen.

I’ll never thank Obama for anything — not once, not ever — but at least a tip of the hat has been earned here.