Wednesday, October 28, 2009

QOTD

Tom Bevan at RealClearPolitics:
In his inaugural address Obama told us that "the time has come to set aside childish things." He promised to bring "an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics."

Not only has President Obama failed to live up to those promises so far, it appears that on more than a number of occasions he’s made a conscious decision to break them.

In the first nine months in office President Obama and/or members of his administration have accused doctors of performing unnecessary medical procedures for profit; demonized bond holders as "speculators;" produced a report suggesting military veterans are prone to becoming right wing extremists; attacked insurance companies and threatened them with legislative retribution; ridiculed talk show hosts and political commentators by name from the White House podium; dismissed and demeaned protesters and town hall attendees as either unauthentic or fringe characters; maligned a white police officer for arresting a black man without knowing the facts of the case; launched an orchestrated campaign to marginalize the country's biggest pro-business group; and publicly declared war on a news organization. . .

Obama took the public’s cynicism and turned it to his advantage by vowing he would be a different kind of leader. So far, however, he is falling well short of his promises, using tactics and rhetoric that not only drive Americans apart but hurt him politically. It's time for Obama to start acting like the President he told us he’d be.
See also Jonah Goldberg at National Review.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

My observation has been that his rare moments of honesty have come when speaking to far left audiences. As to all else, his pronouncements on virtually everything have been, to put it kindly, disingenuous. Pick any topic. Post partisan? Ha. He is the ultimate partisan who regularly ascribes ill motives to the opposition when not outright demonizing them. His solemn duty to decide on Afghanistan? Is there anyone who does not believe that a desicion will be forthcoming within days after the November special elections? I have only lived through a few Presidents, though I have studied most. None to my knowledge have been as hyperpartisan or as disingenuous as our current President.

@nooil4pacifists said...

Agreed.