The White House has apparently decided to continue with its them-vs.-us polarization. I suppose finding demons revs up the base and provides fodder for local races’ (mostly ad hominem) ads.
Almost every ten days, a new bogeyman appears — John Boehner, Fox News, the Tea Party, Rush Limbaugh, or this week’s, the Chamber of Commerce, all as fresh relish to the main course: George Bush and Dick Cheney.
When the history of this administration is written, a key theme will be the abyss between the hope-and-change, across-the-aisle rhetoric and the almost gratuitous way Obama has caricatured his supposed opponents. The current “don’t make me look bad”/“like a dog” psychodrama follows attacks of various sorts on Arizonans, Wall Street, opponents of the Ground Zero mosque, insurers, police, doctors, and anyone above the hated $250,000 income level.
After the media’s embarrassment over the hagiographic coverage of Obama in 2007–9, they still cannot quite fathom that we have the most lashing-out and paranoid president since Richard Nixon — a nebulous and nefarious “they” always behind every administration stumble