Charles Krauthammer and Reality: Still Not Friends

You've got to pity the Hammer. He still has his cushy perch on the opinion page of the Washington Post, he still has a healthy lust for foreign blood in his loins, and he still reveres the economics of Reagan and Thatcher. And, of course, he still lives in a bubble of seething resentment. But somewhere along the line, the ground shifted beneath his feet. The American public -- even those good Heartland folks who don't share Charlie's place among the coastal elite -- elected a smooth-talking black man with a funny middle name to be president.

Sure, the Hammer's mad. But today he makes a bold attempt (you might say 'desperate," but I'm too much of a fan) to pull reality back into his corner. 

His thesis is simple: the bloom is off the rose. Obama's been in office for seventeen full days, and he hasn't fixed the economy yet. He hasn't fixed Iraq, or Afghanistan, or Pakistan. He hasn't fixed the deficit, the health care crisis or "the tone" in Washington. Seventeen days, and pizza still makes you fat, cigarettes aren't health food and ugly dorks still can't bed supermodels!

The bloom is off the rose, people!

... so much for the promise to banish the money changers and influence peddlers from the temple. An ostentatious executive order banning lobbyists was immediately followed by the nomination of at least a dozen current or former lobbyists to high position. Followed by a Treasury secretary who allegedly couldn't understand the payroll tax provisions in his 1040. Followed by Tom Daschle, who had to fall on his sword according to the new Washington rule that no Cabinet can have more than one tax delinquent.

I will agree with the Hammer that there have been some "hypocrisies in the appointment process."