Terry McAuliffe, memorably characterized as "the unkillable cockroach of the Democratic Party" by PJMedia's Stephen Kruiser, is not faring well in the polls in his campaign for governor of Virginia. Apparently, neither is New Jersey's Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy, who's also running for a second term as governor and who at last count had just a six-point lead, plus a toxic endorsement from The Nation, which declared him "the most progressive governor in America."  That won't go over well in Jersey City or Weehawken.

Democrats think these elections are important to their wretched 2022 prospects in Congress and have whipped out their big guns -- not flailing Joe Biden, of course -- but Barack Obama. New Jersey's a blue state that's been the hardest hit by Democrat COVID policies, including the seeding of nursing homes with COVID patients, a man-caused disaster that killed off thousands of elderly people. It's also been subject to tax hikes. Virginia's a purple state and Obama's the man who expanded Washington's bureaucracies and handed its bureaucrats gargantuan salaries; creating Virginia's Washington suburbs and turning the historically red state blue. Obama is there to remind such voters of all those good times.

He's back, and spewing his banal platitudes as well as Trump hate, in the perfect picture of leftist establishment hypocrisy.

Start with the first forked-tongue idiocy, from Fox News:

Former President Barack Obama traveled to New Jersey on Saturday to campaign for Gov. Phil Murphy and claimed that he understands why Americans are questioning when COVID-19 mandates will end.

"The science says it's the right thing to do," Obama said in reference to COVID-19 mask and vaccine requirements to a crowd of Murphy supporters in Newark. "You do it because you're not just protecting yourself, but people you love, people who are vulnerable. But, you know, I don't know how folks just decide everything's got to suddenly be political."

"But I understand why people want to know when this is all going to end," Obama added.

It's as if 2020 never happened. His argument, like a lot of them coming from him, is old and hackneyed. It's what officials were saying back in March 2020 when the pandemic began. The nursing home seedings were just beginning and the bodies were being rolled out, but according to Obama, anything that comes out of the mouth of an incompetent, power-hungry bureaucrat with a one-size-fits-all mentality is 'science.'

Grosser still, he 'understands.' It sound like 2008 now, that's the kind of nonsense he spewed to convinced voters he was a 'moderate.' He understands nothing, he just wants credit for 'understanding' and dismisses all inconvenient facts as well as public discontent and moves on with his socialist power-mongering. Little guys are never a factor except at election time and for them, he offers 'I understand.'

These days, it's flaming hypocrisy. 

As Obama pontificates about masks and the importance of doing whatever bureaucrats say because "science," voters have got to be remembering that not too long ago, Obama held a big super-spreader event at his 60th birthday party on Martha's Vineyard. The elite minions at the huge event (supposedly pared down after an outcry, but not really) wore no masks, partied hearty in the closed tent, and sure enough, Martha's Vineyard got its first large outbreak of COVID in the aftermath. Officials denied that there was a connection, but gave no details. No COVID, then after Obama, lots of COVID? Sounds a little funny. Obama hasn't said anything about it, of course. His message now? Masks for thee, but not for me.

The other problem is his obnoxious claims to favor science, which of course he doesn't. What he favors is bureaucratic edicts, which often go against science, and are dictated by labor unions. As various commentators have noted, first it was 'two weeks to stop the spread.' Then it was 'don't wear masks.' Then it was 'wear masks.' Then it was 'wear two masks.' Then it was 'no vaccine can come because Trump.' Then it was 'get vaxxed.' Then it was 'get vaxxed with a lottery ticket.' Then it was 'get vaxxed or lose your job and be cast as a pariah in society.' None of this sounds like science. It's bureaucratic caprice, premised on what serves bureaucratic, political and union interests best at the time. For Obama to hollering about 'science' is just a little ... tired. Been there, done that. 

As he declares he 'understands,' it's pretty obvious he doesn't understand or pay attention to a thing. It's like he's lost his touch, and can't read a room. Maybe it'll work in blue New Jersey, but I have my doubts.

However, he's lost none of his wiliness.

Spewing more banalities, he decried "meanness" in Virginia. The old "Trump does mean tweets" translated to Virginia politics. Or, Clinton-redux, recall how Bill and Hillary Clinton used to whine about mean-spiritedness, in contrast to that pair's supposed big-spiritedness.

According to NBC News:

RICHMOND, Va. — Former President Barack Obama, campaigning Saturday for Democrat Terry McAuliffe in Virginia’s closely watched race for governor, framed the Nov. 2 election as an opportunity to decisively reject the rhetoric and politics of another former president, Donald Trump.

"We’re at a turning point right now, both here in America and around the world," Obama told a crowd of about 2,000 gathered outdoors on the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University. "Because there's a mood out there. There's a politics of meanness and division and conflict, of tribalism and cynicism. That's one path. But the good news is there's another path where we pull together and we solve big problems."

Meanness? Tribalism. Does he mean bitter clingers? As far as 'path where we pull together' that's already been taken by Joe Biden and just look at the country.

It's obnoxious as heck, given the Democrat record with full control of the House, the Senate and the White House. If that's unity and pulling together (read: shutting out dissenting voices, same way one of the airlines achieved 99% vaxx rates by firing the unvaxxed), Americans know what that means now. While the Obama argument is old and hackneyed, it might work among Democrats, given that seems to have been effective in California during the recall election of loathsome Gov. Gavin Newsom. It's just fake claims with sleazy underhanded tactics to achieve it, all in a bid to look big and above it all. Tell that to the parents protesting at school board meetings who've since been declared domestic terrorists, an act so unpopular most of the school boards and their advocates are trying to walk it back.

Obama essentially is running the 2020 election all over again, this time campaigning against Trump, without the useless baggage of Joe Biden to front for him. The response of his GOP opponent, Glenn Youngkin, is kind of flat-footed, given that I am not aware of any bid from him to flip the tables on Obama and warn voters that a McAuliffe victory means another Joe Biden to plague their lives. He ought to be doing that instead of "distancing" himself from Trump which Elder did, too, and which didn't stop Democrats from running away with it as their big idea to voters. Youngkin is also making the same mistake Larry Elder did by campaigning solely on local issues -- which is important, but insufficient -- while Democrats are taking the campaign national and making it all about Trump. The race is close, and now with Obama playing the Newsom team playbook, he might succeed.

But none of this halts the reality that he's a banal guy with zero new ideas, zero ability to recognize what voters are thinking, and the same-old, same-old, repeating himself over and over. In that regard, he's following the trajectory of Hillary Clinton, who was a same-old, same-old until her party got tired of her. Obama is supposed to be a Democrat star in his party, but he's constantly trotted out to bolster fading Democrat dotards with far less political talent than he had -- from Hillary, to Biden, to now cockroach McAuliffe.

It might work in New Jersey and Virginia, but I suspect this has a limited shelf life. There are too many hypocrisies and contradictions. There's also too much living in the past in this palaver. At some point, the voters are going to catch on to this one-trick pony and one can only hope it happens in New Jersey and Virginia first. If it doesn't happen there, I think it will happen in the rest of country.

Hard fact here is, Obama's act is getting old.

Image:  Pixabay / Pixabay License 

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