How will the Right talk about Mr. Obama now?
In the years since President Barack Obama took office, conservatives have attacked him along three basic lines.
First, they claimed that he simply wasn’t a legitimate American. He was likely born elsewhere — in Kenya perhaps?
This narrative was finally and absolutely debunked last week, when Mr. Obama took the remarkable step of releasing his long-form birth certificate.
Second, they claimed that the president was a “socialist,” and hostile to the basic tenets of our capitalist system, pointing to the bailout of General Motors and the widely unpopular TARP program.
But the Obama administration has been divesting itself of private-sector holdings as rapidly as possible, and TARP has now turned a $20 billion profit.
There is no credible evidence — none, zero — that Mr. Obama wants to nationalize American industries. Even his controversial healthcare reform package uses primarily private sector solutions.
His cabinet is dominated by corporate executives.
Finally, the Right claimed that the Commander in Chief wasn’t credibly Christian (or perhaps wasn’t the right kind of Christian), arguing that his Muslim sympathies rendered him weak on the issue of terrorism.
That narrative never held much water. But it imploded last night when Mr. Obama announced that Osama bin Laden had been found and killed by American Navy SEALS.
It is abundantly clear that the White House has been pursuing Al Quaeda and its operatives zealously, using ground forces, Predator drone attacks and other measures.
Some on the right will never abandon these increasingly marginal claims.
Mr. Obama’s skin color, his middle name, the fact that his father was a Kenyan, and his generally progressive politics mark him in their eyes as a permanent outsider.
There is also a cottage industry of right-wing pundits — from Glenn Beck to Michael Savage to Rush Limbaugh — who can’t afford to abandon these story-lines.
Their audiences aren’t interested in the dull, wonky business of running a complex nation like ours, with all its shades of gray. They want black and white. They want us and them.
But AM talk radio isn’t America and that’s not where elections are won.
As we turn toward 2012, mainstream conservatives will have to shift their lines of attack if they hope to win Republican moderates and independents who occupy the vast political center.
There is still plenty to talk about and criticize. Federal deficits, deep policy differences, social issues. All fair game.
But the idea that Mr. Obama is a dangerous and alien “other”, a vaguely ominous Manchurian-style figure, has now been firmly consigned to the realm of racists and conspiracy theorists.
Tags: politics
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The mentality of conspiracy theorists is “I’ve made up my mind. Don’t trouble me with facts.” I’m sure the hard core Obama haters will find some way to twist this like they twist everything else that doesn’t conform to their views. I’ve already seen one political cartoon denigrating Obama’s leadership in this matter. The fact is that his calm and methodical leadership and focus has accomplished what eluded the prior administration’s bombast and flailing about. I applaud him for it.
I havent seen the right wing media mentioning Osama bin Laden’s death yet either.
I’ve been very critical of Obama lately, but I was encouraged by the decisiveness with which he ordered the operation which killed Bin Laden this past weekend. It’s no secret the Pakistani’s have played both sides of the fence these past many years when it comes to Bin Laden’s whereabouts and their cooperation as a whole in the “War on Terror.”
Which made this operation, a “boots on the ground” type of attack, all the more risky given the obvious political ramifications for the country and the very real danger to the brave men and women who undertook the operation. As you mentioned, Brian, some on the right have managed to ignore or cast aside the evidence of the improved efforts at killing actual terrorists since Obama took office. Now, with the death of Bin Laden, I’m curious as to how folks like Beck, Limbaugh, Savage, Faux news, etc. will push this latest success under the rug……
Here in Kansas, the growing story-line is that bin Laden died several years ago and Obama is now putting out a false story to boost his ratings. These people want proof (and long-forms and college transcripts)….
Here in Kansas: Helpmehelpme.
Well, here is one example from CNN’s David Brody:
“So why did he announce the big news like he was reading the dictionary? You know the answer. It’s because his speech wasn’t so much aimed at Americans. He was being careful of how the “Arab Street” would interpret his remarks. Any hint of gloating or happiness might be rubbing it in the face of some of the crazies in the Arab World and heaven forbid we get them upset! How dare we Americans look like we’re celebrating his death!”
I don’t care what the Right, Middle or Left wings think.
Judson Phillips of TEA Party Nation:
“The bad news is Obama is going to do what most politicians do, especially the liberal politicians. He is going to take credit for something that not only he had little to do with, but had we actually listened to him, the event never would have happened. “
On the birther front, they are now claiming that because his father was a Kenyan then Obama actually has dual citizenship. Therefore he is not a “natural-born” citizen. And they also point to the 2 million he spent after the election on lawers. Of course they say nothing about the 1.9 million John McCain spent after the election on lawyers. What’s Johnny hiding???
If I were Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, I would write a personal thank-you note to the country of Kenya for sending us this double agent who killed Osama Magneto and his band of renegade mutants.
Brain,
I know that you are more into the reaction from the right here but I am curious as to how the left will react.
I wonder if this will this increase the swell of “attacks” that we are coming from the presidents liberal base?
Maybe that was why the press conference was when we were all sleeping?
As for my reaction. Good work. Don’t let up on Pakistan.
Paul,
Neither the right nor the left held Bin Ladin in any regard. While some may lament that he was killed rather than taken alive to stand trial, I doubt that either end of the political spectrum will lament his passing.
Jim, I agree. My point was that there appears to be a growing number of liberals that are upset with the continued operations in the middle east (and the escalation of some) by this administration. Will they see this event as something that was (at least partially) precipitated by those actions and something worth the cost? Or will they see this as yet an extension of the “Bush era” operations that they do not support?
to be fair to the right – at least to the part of the right that speaks for the right – their job is to put a bad spin on anything Obama does. This will be difficult for them and many may simply wait for an easier event to be critical of.
Not all of the conservative’s are trying to spin this negatively for our President.
The deal is though politically you can’t have it both ways. If what happens under a President is his responsibility then it is. So when we as conservatives say well he has increased the deficit, he has caused unemployment we also have to say he was the President who was responsible for this remarkable military operation.
I think Obama is doing what he said he would do, by not being distracted by Iraq he is focusing on Pakistan and Afghanistan and we are seeing the results.
You can’t say you are a Patriot and not support our President right now in this moment.
This could have been a Jimmy Carter re-do of the Iran rescue failure if things had gone wrong. He did not have to go in and try to capture Bin Laden he could have simply lobbed some cruise missles in there or gone in with drones and blown up this place, but the President took the riskier option and it worked, I just can’t imagine how screwed up you have to be to not give him credit for that?
I am glad he was killed and not captured. Why spend money on a trial? Same should be done with Gadafi since he wont do the honorable thing and kill himself.
I give him credit for continuing the Bush Doctrine and for successfully accomplishing the “Kill Mission”.
He didn’t continue the Bush Doctrine. Bush stopped pursuit of bin Laden.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PGmnz5Ow-o
He kept a campaign promise.
tourpro, what exactly do you mean by the “bush doctrine” that obama purportedly continued? i think it’s wrong to say that bush out-and-out stopped pursuit of bin laden, but it’s something he clearly de-emphasized. to wit:
paul,
i can’t speak for all progressives/liberals/democrats/lefties/whatever, but i’m 100% sure that the killing of bin laden will be enthusiastically supported by obama’s base. we’ll have to wait and see if the intelligence that led to bin laden had anything to do with obama’s escalation in afghanistan, or if it was basically unrelated.
finally, i think brian fails to give credit where credit is due: the incredibly successful tarp program (it’s like saying atm machine!) was designed and put in place by the bush administration, not obama.
As hard as it is to come up with an original insane conspiracy theory I hope you will credit me when you hear this one next:
Obama is the Pakistani Manchurian Candidate. Now that Obama has become firmly ensconced in the Whitehouse bin Laden became a greater asset dead. Obama would get the credit for killing him, and anyone who wanted to believe he is still alive could still believe it. How else do you explain the Pakistani’s allowing this incursion into their airspace? Navy Seals didn’t do this, the Pakistani ISI did.
I concur with Peter Klein, who cares what the right thinks? No reason to pay so much to talk radio.
And I’m skeptical of claims TARP made a profit. I’ld like to see some proof.
scratchy,
here’s a link on tarp. to be careful, the profits are only in the portion of tarp used for bank bailouts. the treasury “estimates that all the TARP programs combined — including money doled out to banks, insurance company American International Group (AIG) and domestic auto companies — will result in ‘little to no cost to taxpayers.'”
First, Mr. Obama’s skin color is more talked about by the left than the right.
Second, the media go ga-ga over President Bush when he got Hussein.
Third, most of the intelligence on Osama was gathered before Obama’s watch. Obama put an end to that by executive order.
Fourth – Homeland security secretary Napolitano still doesn’t get it. Muslim extremists are the enemy, Janet, so stop sexually abusing 6-year old kids in airports.
This right wing nut job is very happy to hear the hunt is over. I don’t care who was in office, the job is done. I have to agree with JDM, the left didn’t go into full blown patriotic support when Saddam got captured, and they never let the heat up on Bush, so why expect that from the right? I honestly don’t know what you guys expect. I’m pretty sure a good deal of the people here were foaming at the mouth for Bushs service records and still believe Gore and Kerry both REALLY won. Talk about conspiracies, look in the mirror people.
Obamas cabinet is “dominated by corporate executives”??? Really? I can think of one or 2. That’s not “dominated in my book, who do you mean Brian?
TARP turned a PROFIT??? Please, could you give me some links on that? I’m not sure your definition of “profit” and mine are the same.
MrSandwich, the dual-citizen being ineligible for natural citizen status is an interesting twist. If that is the criteria are they saying it is impossible for any Jew to become President since they have a Right of Return which almost automatically confers citizenship in Israel?
Bret, you should follow hermit thrush’s link.
Bret, We’re all usually more than happy to Google things for you, but there’s actually a program that does it. Just follow this link:
http://tinyurl.com/43yrro4
Teach a man to fish, and he becomes a Galtian overlord!
Bush and Obama absolutely had two different approaches to the hunt for Bin Laden.
Here they are in their own words: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6L77KcKHPg
Bush, completely de-emphasized the hunt – Obama prioritized it.
20 billion/750 billion for one year=2.67%
Better return than I get on my CD.
But if I compare that 2.67% against the loss of buying power say against the euro that profit doesn’t look so rosy. In dollar equivalents, a dollar in October 5 2008 bought .732 euros but if paid back a year later it have a value of .684 euros= a 50 billion loss. Paid back today it has a value of .67 euros.
What if congress, during the Bush presidency did not pass the bill in October 2008, before the election? As they said about Bush then- can’t have it both ways, free market going up and social support going down. If the printing press hadn’t been turned on, would the “profit” be there? Were we paid back with cheaper dollars?
Regardless, the “conservative” talking heads point to the leader and like the old suit cases, paste them with all kinds of labels associated with the affiliates from the leader’s side. In the same way the writers above spout Limbaugh, Beck etc, the heads spout Obama or Liberal. My 11 year old ciphered out the overkill in the months after this president was elected. “He hasn’t been in office just 8 months…”
Obama obviously (now) could have quelled the birth certificate issue long ago. He was slow on Rev. Wright too. But in this day of vast numbers of illegal immigrants who get drivers licenses with no birth certificate- which I had to have 40 years ago and my child needed last year- and voting priviledges once they have a driver’s license, documentation is important. The party is responsible for offering a qualified candidate and being born in this country and territories is the law. Is the party not accountable?
For those who say it was race, they don’t get it. John McCain had to jump the hurdle as have others. The presidential candidate just has to be 35 years old on the day of the inauguration and have proof of birth in this “country.”
Jeff, think about it, why do you think he was “slow” to jump through hoops on his birth certificate and his pastor?
Now that the birth certificate is released, which he could have done a couple of years ago, but choose not to, who looks crazy?
You can’t be defined by your political enemies you have to define them. They tried to define Obama as an outsider and not one of us, he has just defined them as nut jobs. He won.
From the left, I’d like to say that George Bush was an idiot, and that I’m sorry for a missed opportunity for humor…Obama should have come to the midnight press conference wearing a flight suit…
OA, thanks for snarky link wise guy. I thought maybe Brian had something more solid. Here’s the problem- your link says $251 Billion has been paid back, that’s great. But $296 billion has apparently been lent out- “As of February 9, 2009, $388 billion had been allotted, and $296 billion spent, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. ” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troubled_Asset_Relief_Program
I’m just a dumb hick farmer, but isn’t 296 more than 251?
Once again it is the Navy that fixes a problem. Disclaimer: yes I am former Navy, Corpsman to be exact. I know that almost every time someone from the Navy is listed as being killed in Iraq or Afghanistan, it is a Corpsman who was detached to serve as a medic for the Fleet Marines.
Pete, It was fun being the only Navy specialty that could go into the Great Lakes Naval Base club “reserved” by the Marines and not get kicked out. Corpsmen rule.
I don’t disagree with you Mervel. I believe the party has some obligation to clarify questions which would have been a public service by cooling off a hot air vent.
And to tootightmike…. That image or the big sign would have been humorous. Or maybe the lottery announcement ” the winner of the $24million dollars is the CIA!
Our last 3 presidents have had masters degrees in law. The idiocy charge sounds like a Michael Savage claim. Having just read State of Denial by Bob Woodward I think everyone has handicaps they deal with, some more visible than others. For a president or leader it may be lack of information, ideological inflexibility, lack of naysayers, people who whitewash opinions or don’t speak up or fear for their jobs. For some as in the case of Gerald Ford’s clumsiness it is contrived by comedians and perpetuated by political opponents.
Presildent Bush promised, immediately after 9/11, to get Bin Laden “dead or alive” AS the months and years passed and we couldnt find him, in a classic CYA move, the Administration decided to say OBL wasnt really that important after all.
Obama looks good today and will probably get a bounce in the polls but by high election season 2012 Bin Laden will be ancient history and pretty well forgotten.
Bret, just having some fun. And you’re not a dumb hick farmer, so don’t beat yourself up.
But “my link” was actually pages of links from a Google search, so, uh, whuhhh?
Anyway, I clicked through the Andrew Sullivan one and found the figures below on a government release. They’re different than Wiki’s, and people can disagree! Yay, America!
But your veiled assertion that Brian just made something up isn’t right. Plenty of linkage, which is what you asked for and which the geniuses at Let Me Google That for You provide!
“With today’s proceeds, taxpayers have now recovered $251 billion from TARP’s bank programs through repayments, dividends, interest, and other income. That exceeds the original investment Treasury made through those programs ($245 billion) by nearly $6 billion. Treasury currently estimates that bank programs within TARP will ultimately provide a lifetime profit of approximately $20 billion to taxpayers.”
You can still disagree! Go Go Internet Machine Go!
I believe Bush holds an MBA (Masters of Business Administration) and not a Juris Doctorate degree like Obama and Clinton. Obama also passed the BAR exam. I assume Clinton did as well but I’m not sure on that….
Mervel, Jeff,
Obama did ‘release his birth certificate’ well before the 2008 election – the same official birth certificate that I used to get a passport. It was the ‘long-form’ birth certificate – one that a person does not normally receive (do you have yours?) – that the birthers were all in a huff about. There has never been any legal question about his birth, the records have long been released. Why people fail to understand this is perplexing. Unless you buy into the racism theory. Which I do.
Breaking news: Americans didn’t really land on the moon decades ago; it was all staged on former Air Force land near Roswell, N.M. That’s one old folk tale.
A second: The Air Force has never told the truth about UFOs. The evidence of space aliens landing in North America, also at Roswell, was collected and hidden from public scrutiny. Folk tale No. 2.
In the real world, meanwhile, Mr. Obama was lawfully elected and is, in unimpeachable fact, a U.S. citizen. So there, Mr. Beck.
OA- “But your veiled assertion that Brian just made something up isn’t right” Hold on one darn minute!!! I made NO SUCH ASSERTION! I asked for his sources on that. I may accuse Brian of having his blinders on, but not of lying. I don’t believe he does that.
And for the record, I did look through the links from both you and HT. Here’s my problem- http://money.cnn.com/news/storysupplement/economy/bailouttracker/ CNN isn’t exactly a right wing arm of Fox news. They show a payout of $356 Billion. It was last updated in 2009, but spending is spending and I can’t understand how we can have a $100 billion difference in figures…….oh wait, we’re dealing with the Federal Gov’t. I just answered my own question I think.
here’s a link to a recent propublica blog post — for my money propublica is really the gold standard for this stuff. lots more links in the post, too. to reiterate, it’s only the banking component of tarp that has made a profit. but that profit is real.
And the remaining debt is just as real. The small profit doesn’t even make a dent in the debt.
that’s correct, bret. however an awful lot of that remaining debt is still expected to be repaid.
Bret sed: “TARP turned a PROFIT??? Please, could you give me some links on that?”
My bad, Bret. You often use withering sarcasm in the form of questions to imply (maybe not assert) that someone doesn’t have a grasp of the facts or the truth. I thought the above was another case of that.
Tough to read minds on the innertubez.