The Associated Press is reporting that the message President Obama wants to convey in his upcoming State of the Union Address is "Yes, I get it." This in response to the repeated message sent by voters in recent New Jersey, Virginia and Massachusetts elections not to mention the dismal poll numbers for Mr. Obama's proposed policies and his plummeting job approval rating. But actions speak louder than words and while his speech writers diligently work on a way to make it sound like the president is listening to the American people, David Plouffe will be taking on an expanded role as an outside adviser to the White House, according to sources familiar with the plan. (source)

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Who is David Plouffe? He is the political strategist who managed Candidate Obama's 2008 presidential campaign. He is the man who, after Mr. Obama was inaugurated, penned The Audacity to Win, a memoir of that campaign in which the author admitted to secretly conspiring with John Edwards's aides to corner Hillary Clinton into a fateful pledge to avoid Florida and Michigan - states that scheduled early primaries in violation of Democratic party wishes and whose delegates she essentially had to forsake after winning big in those states. Plouffe also reveals how he successfully talked New York Times political writer Adam Nagourney into altering how the paper counted primary delegates - replacing a method favorable to Clinton with one favorable to Obama. (source)

So now, after the worst week of his administration so far, when he has lost his rubber stamp in the Senate, when his signature domestic issue has died on the operating room table, when the American people have clearly and loudly rejected his politics and his policies and while he is supposedly trying to convey that he "gets it"; what is President Obama doing?

Well, he's not giving up on his vastly unpopular version of health care reform. He's not abandoning his business-as-the enemy stance which has helped to keep the unemployment rate in double digits. He's not rescinding the non-stimulating stimulus package nor retreating from his push for a second one. He's not reaching across the aisle to find bi-partisan solutions to the nation's problems in the post-partisan way he promised during the campaign. No, he's bringing back the man that successfully packaged the empty promises, foolish platitudes and blatant lies of that campaign.

In addition to Mr. Plouffe, Mr. Obama is also sending several top operatives from the campaign across the country to advise Democratic candidates as part of his attempt to take greater control over the midterm elections. According to Senior White House Adviser David Axelrod, "We are going to evaluate what we need to do to get timely intelligence and early warnings so we don't face situations like we did in Massachusetts." (source) Exactly what kind of situations would that be, Mr. Axelrod? The situations wherein the people vote for a candidate who shares their positions on the issues? I can certainly understand why you wouldn't want to face that again.

And so President Obama continues to choose old politics over improved policy in an attempt to fool the voters a second time. Thankfully it seems the American people won't fall for this particular con game again.