Is anyone listening to Obama anymore?
Peggy Noonan doesn't think so.
The former Reagan speechwriter and columnist said on ABC's "This Week" that the country has tuned the president out sooner than any other second term president.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, HOST: You are seeing (ph) more populist Democrats, I agree with that, but Peggy Noonan, you know, the president going back to the country one more time, it's unclear that these speeches are doing much to move public opinion, much less Washington.
PEGGY NOONAN, WALL STREET JOURNAL: Yes, I think that's true. But when the White House calls it a pivot, somebody counted it up and said it's probably the tenth pivot to the economy the president has done since he came in.
I noticed that in one of the speeches, it went over an hour. There was a heck of a lot jammed in. That tells me something. It said we're not sure exactly what to say, so we're going to say everything, but a speech about everything is a speech about nothing. Beyond that, I think every president in the intense media environment we have now, certainly every two-term president, gets to a point where the American people stop listening, stop leaning forward hungrily for information. I think this president got there earlier than most presidents. And I think he's in that time now.
One could make the case that this is what happens when you fall in love with the sound of your own voice. Who's going to tell the president that his speeches are boring, repetitive, and substanceless?
It's far more than speeches, of course. You get the sense that no one is listening to - or believing - the president. This will only be heightened when the Obamacare mess gets underway on October 1. So far, the president has been downplaying the train wreck that's coming. Imagine the surprise of consumers when they try to purchase subsidized insurance on the exchanges, only to discover that they are not going to be able to complete the transaction that day. In some states, they are going to have to fill out a paper application for the policy as well as spending goodness knows how much time online.
The president's entire second term agenda is failing. And a big reason is, as Noonan says, no one is listening.