Connecting the Dots: Matthews and Caddell

The media's focus lately has all been on the Republican race for the Presidential nomination, which seems to boil down to Romney versus ABR (Anybody But Romney).   But something very strange is going on on the Democratic Party side... really strange.   Two old warhorses of the Party's media elite, Pat Caddell and Chris Matthews, have simultaneously unloaded bombs on Obama.   First, Caddell (and Doug Schoen) in the Wall Street Journal:

By going down the re-election road and into partisan mode, the president has effectively guaranteed that the remainder of his term will be marred by the resentment and division that have eroded our national identity, common purpose, and most of all, our economic strength. If he continues on this course it is certain that the 2012 campaign will exacerbate the divisions in our country and weaken our national identity to such a degree that the scorched-earth campaign that President George W. Bush ran in the 2002 midterms and the 2004 presidential election will pale in comparison.

We write as patriots and Democrats—concerned about the fate of our party and, most of all, our country. We do not write as people who have been in contact with Mrs. Clinton or her political operation. Nor would we expect to be directly involved in any Clinton campaign.

If President Obama is not willing to seize the moral high ground and step aside, then the two Democratic leaders in Congress, Sen. Harry Reid and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, must urge the president not to seek re-election—for the good of the party and most of all for the good of the country. And they must present the only clear alternative—Hillary Clinton.

And then there's Matthews, in an interview first published over the weekend, arguing that Obama has no agenda and that he doesn't talk to Congressional leaders.   The undertone is that Matthews (he of the 2008 "tingle" up his leg over Obama) has concluded that Obama is... well, weird:




Strange times, indeed.