A Loss of Connection

It seems clear that frustrations with Obama are not unique the Tea Party or very conservative voters. He has lost a lot of mainstream support, and it seems linked to his inability to connect with voters on an emotional level. His political choices have played a role, but the emotional angle can be critical. This post from The Anchoress makes a good point for why George Bush is becoming a figure of some affection when compared to the current POTUS:

One of my husband’s friends–hated Bush, loved Obama and defended him vociferously for the first year, less passionately the second–told him over lunch this week that he’s done with Obama and “I never thought I’d say this but I miss Bush. We knew that he said what he meant, even if we didn’t want to hear it. We knew who he was, even if we didn’t like him. And we never had to wonder whether he liked us. He always did.”
And that is it, in a nutshell. Bush is missable, because we miss having a president whose affection for his country and its people–even the ones who hated him–was never in doubt.
We miss Bush because he never lectured us or harangued us, and when people disagreed with him, they were not immediately called names in an attempt to simply shut up debate.

Obama's success in 2008, driven by an emotional connection to his persona and background, seems a distant memory.