printDana Bash, a CNN reporter who is never bashful about covering the president favorably, cringed when forced to deliver John Boehner’s rapid response to Barack Obama’s “enemies” quip. Recall that “during an interview last Monday on the Spanish-language radio station,” Mr. Obama tried to galvanize Latinos by referring to his opposition as “our enemies” who need punishing.
Posted only much later in the day on CNN (@8:01 PM ET), and only after the Obambi-issued mea culpa had already gone up on the network’s website, here is the House Minority Leader’s rather good response to that twisted brother:
“Mr. President, there’s a word for people who have the audacity to speak up in defense of freedom, the Constitution and the values of limited government that made our country great,” Mr. Boehner is set to tell an audience in Cincinnati tonight. “We don’t call them ‘enemies.’ We call them patriots. … “We have a president in the White House who referred to Americans who disagree with him as ‘our enemies,’” Mr. Boehner’s speech says. “Think about that. He actually used that word. When Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush used the word ‘enemy,’ they reserved it for global terrorists and foreign dictators – enemies of the United States.”
Sadly, we have [a] president who used the word ‘enemy’ for fellow Americans…fellow citizens,” the speech continues. “He uses it for people who disagree with his agenda for bigger government…people speaking out for a smaller, more accountable government.
I haven’t been following on Obama lately but Good God…
Are Democrats, or at least Leftists, this idiotic?
Many predicted that Obama would act as the self-righteous, politically tone-deaf Jimmy Carter and not the pragmatic, flexible shmoozing Bill Clinton. This seems to have been borne out. I am certain that Obama will be getting oodles of advice to be Clintonesque rather than Carteresque – but changing character is a tough thing to do. I am sure that people advised Nixon on charm school lessons, Ford on diction lessons, Bush#1 on empathy and coherence, and Bush#2 on NOT treating English as a foreign language and smirking like a grinning doofus. Sarah Palin probably has coaches trying to turn her into Socrates. However, politics is a gift and an art and Obama may just not have the ability to get past his self-righteous arrogance. After all, how many people win a Nobel Prize for their first week in office???!!!
Mr. Pauli,
I do believe you have hit the nail on the head once again. I have come to look forward to reading your thoughts on BAB. I may not always agree but, I repect the fact that your opinions are backed by facts and your core principles. I would have liked to have met both you and Ilana in Baltimore but, I could not make the conference.
The president may actually have a birth certificate but if he emphasizes his brotherhood with those who have illegally invaded this country; he has in deed, if not fact, disavowed his citizenship. I know he will not be held accountable for anything but a (smirk) misspoke word but none the less, we now know where we stand with our own president, don’t we.
Myron…you don’t think Barry could go into a centrist shell, hibernate for two years, and remind himself daily: ‘Wait it out a couple of years, and then go back to central planning mode’..? He’ll bide his time for 2 years, starting tomorrow, with the thinking that he’s pretending to be moderate for the good of the country. For the righteous cause.
For the schoolteacher in [INSERT SMALL TOWN CITY FROM FLYOVER COUNTRY] with [INSERT HEALTH PROBLEM], working as a [INSERT BLUE-COLLAR JOB AND A SECOND], struggling to pay her bills because her 8-year old child has [INSERT CONGENITAL DISEASE] and her insurance [INSERT DECISION OF A PRIVATE BUSINESS THAT MAKES THEM LOOK BAD].
Barry can do the math. 6 years of statism > 4 years.
Sunny:
The story came out that Mike Dukakis was being “prepped” for his debate with Bush # 1 and was given the “Death Penalty” question. His “coaches” kept telling him to say how he would personally strangle the murderer but that government is more than an angry avenger etc.- any competent debater could pull off the macho-plus-legalistic finesse (Mario Cuomo – 1988) but arrogant Dukakis INSISTED on rejecting their coaching and came off like a stiff dummy. It takes skill to lose a debate to Bush!
Barry grew up in Indonesia and Hawaii at private schools and never meshed with the Middle American Rednecks that Clinton knew intimately, that Reagan grew up with, etc. To Barry, there are 2 types of white Americans – (1) “Progressive” mostly secular-Jewish-WASPish academics at University of Chicago, Columbia, Harvard and (2) Rampantly racist reactionary redneck Republicans (5 R’s!). The latter are, of course, the ENEMY.
Obviously, Obama’s not so stupid as to believe this consciously but if he believes it subconsciously, it will seep into his arrogant attitude no matter how much he might wish it otherwise. Nixon, Carter, and Wilson – were no dummies but they could not control their own foolish self-righteous arrogance.