Republican hatred of Obama

[Guest The Consortium]

The commentariat class also has continued to frame the Republican hatred of Obama as Obama’s fault, describing his “failure” to achieve a more bipartisan Washington or – in its latest formulation – calling Obama “the most polarizing President ever.”

 

It might seem counterintuitive to call a President with approval ratings in the 60 percentiles “polarizing” – when that term was not applied to George W. Bush with his numbers half that of Obama’s. But this notion has arisen because Republicans have turned harshly against Obama, while Democrats and Independents have remained supportive.

 

This gap of about 60 points between Democratic approval and Republican disapproval is called the largest in the modern era. (Bush presumably was less “polarizing” because his Republican numbers slumped along with his approval from Democrats and Independents.)

 

What is rarely acknowledged is that the Republican Party has both shrunk in size and retreated toward its hard-line “base,” meaning that the “polarization gap” could simply reflect the fact that a smaller, more extreme Republican Party hates Obama, while other presidents faced a larger, more moderate opposition party.

 

Rather, according to the Washington pundit class, this gap is Obama’s fault, much as he was blamed for “failing” to attract Republican votes for his stimulus bill and his budget. Rarely do the pundits lay the blame on the Republicans who have taken a position of near unanimous opposition to Obama, much as they did toward Clinton 16 years ago.

 

Instead of seeing a pattern – that Republicans may hope to torpedo Obama’s presidency and reclaim congressional control , as they did in 1993-94 – the Washington press corps describes the Republicans as holding firm to their small-government principles and the Democrats as refusing to give due consideration to GOP alternatives.

 

Already a new conventional wisdom is taking shape, that “polarizing” Obama would be wrong to use the “reconciliation” process to enact health-care and environmental programs by majority vote, that he should instead water them down and seek enough Republican votes to overcome GOP filibusters in the Senate, which require 60 votes to stop.

 

To get enough Republican votes on health care would almost surely mean eliminating a public alternative that would compete with private insurers, and on the environment, cap-and-trade plans for curbing carbon emissions would have to be shelved.

 

But that is the course that the pundit class generally favors, while demanding that Obama and the Democrats, not the Republicans, take the necessary steps toward cooperation.

 

“It will continue to behoove Obama to woo Republican help – no matter how tough the odds,” wrote Washington Post columnist David Broder on Sunday. “Presidents who hope to achieve great things cannot for long rely on using their congressional majorities to muscle things through.”

 

But if Obama takes the advice of Broder and other pundits and dilutes his proposals to make them acceptable to Republicans, the President will surely draw the wrath of the Democratic “base,” which will accuse him of selling out. The vicious cycle will have rotated once again.

[Guest Michael Steele]

When President Obama was elected, he promised to usher in an era of fiscal responsibility. Even the theme of his inauguration speech was "Era of Responsibility." So how's that promise working out for him?

 

Well, on Tuesday the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a report on the budget predicting a $7 trillion deficit by 2019. This is after Obama's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released its own report predicting a $9 trillion deficit over the same period of time.

 

The same OMB report shows public debt doubling by 2019 and reaching three-quarters the size of the entire national economy. So with our nation already recording historic levels of debt and facing exploding deficits, what are the Obama Democrats proposing?

 

If you guessed more spending on bloated federal government programs ... you would be correct.

 

Obama and his liberal Congressional allies want to saddle taxpayers with even more debt through their government-run health care experiment that will cost trillions of dollars. In addition, they are proposing a radical cap and trade tax that will increase Americans' tax burden by an estimated $150 billion a year. This is on top of the record spending -- nearly $5 trillion -- Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid rammed through the Democrat controlled Congress in the first 100 days.

 

There's only one way to stop the tidal wave of Obama's red ink -- electing more conservative Republicans in 2009 and 2010.

 

That starts today with the continuing support of grassroots leaders like you. Please help by making a secure online contribution of $25, $50, $100, $500 or $1,000 to the RNC.

 

There is no time to waste. The President has acknowledged, "We are out of money now." Yet the Obama Democrats continue their reckless spending and borrowing putting our great nation on the path to bankruptcy.

 

Their soak-the-"rich," class-warfare rhetoric is just a slick way to hide the fact that you and millions of other hard-working, middle class families -- as well as your children and grandchildren -- will be footing the bill in the form of higher taxes to bankroll their leftist schemes.

 

Sincerely,

 

Michael Steele

Chairman, Republican National Committee

 

P.S. Tuesday's CBO and OMB reports on the budget show that the Obama Democrats' reckless spending and borrowing has led America into record levels of debt. So much for Obama's "Era of Responsibility."

[Guest Michelle Malkin]

Obama's team is a dysfunctional and dangerous group of business-as-usual cronies. The corruption stretches from wealthy power brokers Rahm Emanuel and Valerie Jarrett, to pay-to-play-tainted Michelle Obama and Joe Biden, to ethically challenged, bailout-bungling money men Larry Summers and Tim Geithner at Treasury, crime-coddling corporate lawyer Eric Holder at DOJ, to the crooked Service Employees International Union, and the ever-expanding swamp of Washington lobbyists.

[Guest Bill Whittle]

Obama example is a case of horrible content beautifully packaged. Conservatism, on the other hand, is a beautiful message horribly packaged, and if we ever hope to win again we'd better get in this game and right quick.

[Guest Human]

Republicans don't hate Obama. We just disagree about where to take the country.

 

In my area how ever I've been getting alot of Death Threats from the democrats "It's definitely an experience".

 

One of the more vocal democrats works for Giant foods.

[Luke_Wilbur]

I can't believe there is so much hatred and disrespect going on.

[JT Allen]

Obama example is a case of horrible content beautifully packaged. Conservatism, on the other hand, is a beautiful message horribly packaged, and if we ever hope to win again we'd better get in this game and right quick.

 

"Conservatism ... is a beautiful message horribly packaged ..." I absolutely could not agree with you more - that is - if you are speaking purely in fiscal terms.

[Guest human]

What all of this has taught me is that one group holding all of the power does NOT ALLOW FOR ANY MODERATE VOICES.

 

I'm hoping that in the next election cycle that a balance of power prevails, because if attitudes continue in the direction that they are heading in?

 

The ONLY thing that we Will HAVE LEFT IS; FAR LEFT VS FAR RIGHT, and that really benefits NO ONE.

 

 

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I can't believe there is so much hatred and disrespect going on.

[Luke_Wilbur]

Politics may prove Albert Einstein's bending of light. In this case light is truth. I can see Far Right Congressman Ron Paul bumping into Congressman Dennis Kucinich and realizing both want similar things. Both despise the Federal Reserve

 

Then again Ron Paul does not think Healthcare is a civil right. Dennis Kucinich does think Healthcare is a civil right.

 

Here is an interesting video where Ron Paul talks about Dennis Kucinich.

 

[Guest Bipartisan]

I just found this video the former First Lady did last month. Laura Bush is very classy. She thinks President Obama is doing a good job and hopes that political parties come together on issues.

 

[Guest LAW]

Many Republicans are very outspoken against the hatred of our President.

 

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/10/25/INGN1A90V0.DTL&type=politics#ixzz0UxYNq6OI

 

When President Obama and former President George H.W. Bush made a joint appearance at Texas A&M University last week, Bush used the opportunity to call for greater civility in public discourse.

 

He identified the right problem but called it by the wrong name. When people say, "Obama wasn't born in the United States" or "Obama is instituting death panels" or "W knew about 911" - that is not incivility, that's hatred.

[Guest Human]

Law; Considering that the hatred That I have been on the receiving end of; Could you tell your group "Democrats" that?

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[quote name='LAW'

 

When President Obama and former President George H.W. Bush made a joint appearance at Texas A&M University last week, Bush used the opportunity to call for greater civility in public discourse.

[Guest LAW]

Law; Considering that the hatred That I have been on the receiving end of; Could you tell your group "Democrats" that?

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Why would Democrats hate you? I have many friends who are Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, and Socialist.

[Guest Elvis]

All small-government, foreign policy, and fiscal conservatives left the party in the Bush Jr. era. There's no rational reason left to feel allegiance toward the Republican Party.

 

All that remains is resentment against liberals, foreigners, and minorities. So Republicans have convinced themselves that the president is all three.