George Soros is reported to have told a closed-door group of fellow funders of the left that "We have just lost this election, we need to draw a line ...And if this president can't do what we need, it is time to start looking somewhere else." This should not be taken as an abandonment of Obama, merely a warning to him that the left's financial backers did not make their fortunes without learning that sunk costs are sunk, but their warning was accompanied by a proffered lifeline to  an administration that Soros accurately observed, has gotten "the short end of the stick."

It is difficult to recall any previous administration that has had the term "failure" applied as widely or as frequently to its work after less than two years in office, especially while enjoying so much enthusiastic media and political class support. "Obama's Next Failure,"  "This is a serious setback for the US - another breathtaking failure on the part of the Obama administration, yet again putting Americans and national security at risk." "Poll: Women see Barack Obama administration as a 'failure'." "Obama's Failure of Leadership;"   "Obama: Our allies hate him. Our enemies are laughing at him: Obama's Global Failure;""President Obama's Pakistan policy is going up in smoke;" 

This administration has been a stunning procession of abysmal failures. They have debased the government's dialog with its own citizens, thus damaging our civic life as much as our economy and security.  With their oft-repeated notion that we are being led by our best and brightest, they have even managed to give meritocracy a bad name. In terms of the damage they have done to constitutional and limited government, even their self-proclaimed successes are viewed by most Americans as disasters.

So what are a set of moneyed leftists to do? A day after Soros brandished the stick; he and his friends offered the carrot through their mouthpiece John Podesta and The Center for American Progress. Couched as a report, it is really a Troubled Policies Relief Program-"forget the Midterms; ignore the new Congress; do what Soros and his Tides pals, the union bosses and the rest of the leftist hive put you there to do:"

"Concentrating on executive powers presents a real opportunity for the Obama administration to turn its focus away from a divided Congress and the unappetizing process of making legislative sausage...It would be a welcome relief from watching legislative maneuvering to see the work of a strong executive who is managing the business of the country through troubled times..."