Government by freakout

Peggy Noonan writes in The Wall Street Journal that Obama is practicing government by freakout.

Mr. Obama has finally hit on his own version of national unity: Everyone get scared together.

What effect do all the successive fiscal cliffs, ceilings and sequesters, have on public confidence? On the public's spirit? They only add to the sense that Washington is dysfunctional and cannot possibly help us out of the mire.

It shows the world we lurch from crisis to crisis by habit now. This makes us look incapable and beset.

Beyond that, the president damages himself with his cleverness. At the end of the day he looks incapable of creating a sense of stability. The thing he misses as he shrewdly surveys the field is what he is: the president. He is the man people expect to lead, to be wiser. He is the one they expect to come up with a plan that is a little more than Let's Threaten Catastrophe.

Read more here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324503204578318540475371284.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop