What's Wrong With the President

There is a significant minority that is determined to make Barack Obama a one term president. This group finds our current president so offensive and unacceptable that their rhetoric has often escalated to vitriolic levels. What terrible actions has this President taken that has so riled a portion of the population? What is it about this president that has produced such intense emotional responses?

Let's review some of the statements that are being made about this president. Start with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's now famous statement that the number one priority for the Republican party would be to ensure that President Obama would be a one term president. Apparently this is more important than fixing a problematic economy. This president has been called a socialist and even a Communist. Even his birth in the United States has been questioned. He has been accused of being a Muslim and not a real American. To this group of Americans he is seen as 'other'.

 No amount of factual information appears to be able to change the minds of this element of the electorate. They have accepted conspiracy theories with no basis in fact and have hardened their views of this president. This week's Time magazine indicated that there has been a 13% increase in the purchase of ammunition because word has gotten out that it is going to become more difficult to buy ammunition. The blogosphere is working ovettime to crank out some of the most bizarre notions which are readily digested by this hardcore group.

Also, what about the current investigation of Attorney General Eric Holder? The President has invoked the use of executive privlege regarding some subpoenaed documents. The arguments about executive privlege go back to President George Washington and the founding of the republic. There has never been a president who didn't believe in such a privlege and there has never been a congress that didn't have problems with it. Yet in this case we have heard calls for resignation, impeachment, accusations of lying to congress. This group seems determined to magnify the smallest issue and make it seem far more important than it is.The irony is that the Attorney General could well be protecting the activities of the Bush Administration, as the program in question began under President Bush.

The reality is that the Obama Presidency has been about as main stream and moderate as it could possibly be. The President did pass a stimulus bill which of course is very mainstream policy for Democratic politicians. Libnerals wanted him to nationalize the banks in the wake of the financial crisis but he refused to do so. He did pass a health care reform bill, but that has been a policy goal of every President going back to Richard Nixon. His sin seems to be that he was actually able to get it passed.The law he did pass represents a conservative model pushed by Republicans and signed in to law in Massachusetts by then Governor Mitt Romney. In foreign policy he has pursued many of George Bush's policies and escalated drone attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He pursued and got Bin Laden. He has incurred the wrath of many liberals who find him far too conservative. At most he could be considered center left, but he is not an extreme president by any stretch of the imagination.

There of course is and should be legitimate opposition to this President's policies. You can listen to CNBC any day and learn that Wall Street has a very different vision of how to turn this economy around. I believe their view is short sighted and lacking in concern for the average American, but it is a legitimate opposing political view. As mentioned, liberals have been very tough on this President, especially in the foreign policy domain and on almost every other issue, wishing he had gone farther than he did. Also there are sincere religious people who have disagreements with this president on issues like gay marriage and abortion.

 While opposition to this man's policies  are understandable and not innappropriate, the reactions and responses we are seeing from this one segment of the electorate is so far out of proportion to the actual facts. Why has President Obama encountered such violent opposition and even hatred from this significant minority? Of course we know that the opposition could not be an issue of race. It cannot be that the opposition is coming from a group of citizens who believe that the election of an African American to the presidency in this country cannot be allowed to stand. It cannot be that there are citizens who see the 2008 election as illegitimate because a black man was elected. It cannot be that there are those who are even more incensed because President Obama is not only black but of mixed race. It cannot be that the lack of respect and decorum shown this president even by other elected officials has anything to do with this President's race.

I wonder then, what the real reason could be.