Writing at the American Spectator, Quin Hillyer notes that President Obama is back to his old whine that Republicans and conservatives wish for him to fail.

As this is neither a particularly profound nor difficult-to-explain notion, Hillyer disposes of it with relative ease.

First, Obama’s actual quote from yesterday:

“They’re making the same calculation they made just before the inauguration: If I fail, they win,” he said. “Well, they might think this will get them where they need to go in November, but it won’t get our country where it needs to go in the long run.”

And now Hillyer’s evisceration of it.

He stipulates to everything Obama says, save for the final clause. Hillyer draws a major distinction on the desire for the president to fail, one which has two operative parts.

First, in those actions which genuinely move America forward he (and we) supports Obama’s success. Unfortunately, none of those actions seem to be included in the president’s agenda – Obamacare, Card Check, Net Neutrality, bailouts, financial “reform,” Cap And Trade and the rest are disastrous offenses against individual liberty and prosperity, and any believer in the principles of the country’s founding would surely condemn them as such rather than wish Obama well in his efforts at cramming them down our throats.

And second, and perhaps most importantly, Hillyer recognizes the arrogance inherent in Obama’s “If I fail…it won’t get our country where it needs to go” griping…

Obama seems to conflate his agenda with the only possible way to right the ship of state. He seems to believe that “l’etat, c’est moi.” He’s dead wrong.

And then comes prose which massages the conservative soul…

So I do hope he fails. I hope he fails in making government bigger and more powerful. I hope he fails at passing any more stimulus or infrastructure spending. I hope he fails at his payoffs to union bosses and jackpot justice big-money plaintiffs’ attorneys. I hope he fails at politicizing and corrupting the Justice Department. I hope he fails in almost all of his over-bearing regulatory schemes and administrative end-runs (some of them arguably illegal) around Congress. I hope he fails at raising taxes. I hope he fails at continuing to destroy what’s left of the 1996 welfare reform bill. I hope he fails at subjugating American interests to the desires of supposedly elite international actors. I hope he fails at “transforming” America, which needs no transformation at all. I hope he fails, fails, fails, fails, fails. And the reason I hope he fails is not so somebody else can gain political advantage, but so the United States can thrive again — free from the shackles imposed by a philosophical alien in the White House. Yes, Mr. President, in that sense I hope you fail.

Hell, yeah.

The “L’etat, c’est moi” mentality on display in Obama’s statements that Hillyer identifies is, I think, the operative element at work here. Obama’s presidency has been marked by exceedingly extralegal conduct within the executive branch and utter disregard for popular opinion in his pursuit of policy. In short, this administration looks a lot like that of a Third World ruling cabal, where the rule of law is debased and the consent of the governed is derided. As such it’s no surprise that the potentate in charge of the regime would treat opposition to his policies not as driven by principle but as a rejection of his imperial person – and seek to demonize that opposition in kind.

This means eight weeks of “John Boehner is a doodie-head” and “those Tea Party kooks are just like the Klan.”

It’s unlikely the American people will be swayed by such low-brow rhetoric on the part of the nation’s highest-ranking elected official. Polls show that in the upcoming midterms, as with many of his other political endeavors, a majority of the nation joins Hillyer and most conservatives in hoping Obama fails.

He’s going to have to deal with that after Election Day. How he copes will be a significant story to watch unfold.