Milbank on Obama's First Term: 'Messiah Never Came'

As NewsBusters reported Friday, Newsweek magazine's newest cover touts Barack Obama's upcoming inauguration as "The Second Coming."

Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank apparently doesn't agree, and wrote about the President's first term Friday the "messiah never came."

"Monday’s phony ceremony on the West Front of the Capitol contributes to the overall letdown that is this 2013 inauguration," said Milbank. "For all the grand preparations, the moment feels small."

"Four years ago, hundreds of thousands of people flooded the capital, sleeping on floors and lining the streets so that they could be part of history: the inauguration of the first black president, who had the promise of being a transformational figure that could bring hope and change to a broken political system," Milbank observed.

"That messiah never came, and a sluggish economic recovery overshadowed his term," he added. "Obama was reelected less because he inspired the nation than because he discredited his opponent."

Indeed. But wouldn't it have been nice if folks like Milbank made such observations before Election Day rather than hours before the president was getting inaugurated for the second time?

Nah. That would have been too much like journalism and might have led to Americans voting for someone else.

Can't have that.