Bad Sign: The Hamptons Are Totally Over Obama

Richard Cohen spent Labor Day there, and found zero fans
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 7, 2011 1:03 PM CDT
Bad Sign: The Hamptons Are Totally Over Obama
Whoever vacations in this home might no longer support Obama.   (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

Richard Cohen spent his Labor Day hobnobbing around the Hamptons, that magical place where, in his description, "the Democratic energy, money, and intellectual firepower of Manhattan goes for R&R." It may not be the vacation destination of the working-man Democratic base, he acknowledges, but it's a good Democratic barometer. And here's how Cohen read that barometer: The Hamptons are over President Obama. While spending the holiday at events peopled by lawyers, tycoons, academics, and other such folk, the topic of Obama came up at every single one. "At none of them—that’s none—was he defended."

And that's pretty wild, observes Cohen, who notes that he was mostly surrounded by Democrats, some of whom "had been vociferous Obama supporters" as recently as last year. They griped about the disappearance of their "change" advocate, about Obama's inadequate stimulus plan, about his lack of political skills. Sure, some of these same complainers will run right back to Obama once the choice comes down to him or, say, Rick Perry, writes Cohen for the Washington Post. But for now, they "have bailed on Obama—not just some of them, not just a few of them, but all of them. The early returns are in: Obama has lost the Hamptons." (More Barack Obama stories.)

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