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Go Home The Haters

POLITICS NOVEMBER 26, 2008

The Haters

BY MICHAEL SCHAFFER

They don’t have political rallies to bring them together anymore, but it’s no secret that a lot of people out there don’t much like Barack Obama. The president-elect, according to his more fervent campaign-season detractors, has a raft of unforgivable faults: He’s a socialist, a Muslim, an actual love-child of Malcolm X. His birth certificate was missing, his book had been ghost-written by William Ayers, and his wife, "Mrs. Grievance," as a National Review cover dubber her, was perennially on the cusp of getting caught ranting against the white man. The only thing keeping the Illinois senator’s infamy from going public is the quiescence of the liberal media. Perhaps you remember.

Whatever its effectiveness ahead of Election Day, the right-wing hate campaign made for a nice exercise in nostalgia. For eight years, opposition politics have mainly involved attacking the president for, like, things he’s done or wanted to do in office----and not, say, secret religious view he holds or convoluted murders involving his wife. Now, after an administration in the wilderness, they were back--the conspiracy theorists, the paranoiacs, the fringe figures whose dubious relationships with the truth weren’t enough to disqualify them from star turns in the right-wing media. The last Democratic president had spent his White House years in perpetual battle against well-funded crackpots peddling far-fetched theories, and now this one would, too. So much for change.

The clean-up crews were probably still sweeping confetti from Grant Park, in fact, when the first wave of paranoiac Obama-reaction hit the press: A run on gun-shops by disaffected red-staters convinced that the 44th president would do to the Second Amendment what Bill Ayers tried to do to New York City Police Headquarters. "He wants to take our guns from us and create a socialist society policed by his own police force," Jim Pruett, a Houston-based radio-personality-turned-gun-dealer, told the New York Times.

Obama's political team may be trying to avoid another eight years of wrestling with presidential haters, but they’d be lucky if kooky, easily disproven charges like Pruett's come to represent his presidency's antagonists. The last Democratic president wasn't so fortunate. It’s hard to remember now, after all the trouble Clinton got himself into, but the similarly nutty campaign-trail hyperventilation directed at the Arkansas governor concerned things that didn’t go on to become major issues once he took office. Back in 1992, the sharpest of the Republican election-season barbs concerned Clinton's alleged draft-dodging, marijuana-inhaling, and, especially, his participation in anti-Vietnam protests while living in England as a Rhodes Scholar. Rumor spread that the Democrat had at one point sought to renounce his citizenship; a GOP political appointee at the State Department was later disciplined for improperly searching Clinton’s passport files in search of evidence.

The meme was also spread by the man at the top of the GOP food chain, Clinton’s opponent on that year's ballot. "I say level with the American people on the draft, whether you went to Moscow, how many demonstrations he led against his country from a foreign soil," President George H.W. Bush told Larry King weeks before the election, sounding more than a little like this year’s Republican candidate. "Level, tell the truth and then let the American voters decide."

Unfortunately for Clinton, that sort of self-parodic allegation didn’t follow him into the Oval Office. This reflects one basic drawback of the attacks: The most sensational charges were baseless. But it also reflects a bigger problem with the whole patriotism-and-cultural-radicalism shtick that is central to Republican campaign strategy: It works well when it comes to disqualifying a Democratic wanna-be from getting elected, but it doesn’t work so well against a sitting President of the United States. Once he was living in the White House and flying around on Air Force One, Clinton became a symbol of the country, for better or worse, and attacks on his love for America became a lot less credible. And for all his faults, he also became the rapidly graying man in a suit on TV every night rather than a bearded hippie whose (fake?) marijuana-smoking represented a Main Street worry.

The same thing will happen to President Obama. Once he’s the man at the lectern with the presidential seal--the real one--he's pretty hard to dismiss as a frightening outsider. Just last week, Al Qaeda put out a statement attacking the president-elect. Every attack like that further cements his place at the center of mainstream American identity. Dissing his patriotism isn’t a winning political recipe. In 1993, Clinton's detractors branched out into investigating the back-country of Arkansas, the bureaucracy of Washington, and especially the places where they intersected. In 2009, Obama’s will move elsewhere, too. But where?

The good news for Obama is that it’s unlikely that he--or, for that matter, any other human being--could be as much of an ally to his tormentors as Clinton was. Possibly even better news is that any organized anti-Obama efforts may have to make do without a sugar daddy. During the Clinton years, right-wing moneybags like Richard Mellon Scaife spent actual money on the investigative efforts that helped trip up the 42nd president, and that represented a prerequisite for getting the ensuing dirt into the conservative media slipstream. If right-wing 527s barely stepped up during the campaign, who’s going to shell over the bucks now?

The bad news for the president-elect is that things that required money back in 1993 now come very cheap. Why pay for duplicating and distributing Vince Foster murder videotapes when you can just post them on YouTube? Of course, some results are easier to find on the cheap than others. Finding alleged sexual-harassment victims takes some shoe-leather. Finding policy screw-ups by the president or his aides, on the other hand, has gotten easier, thanks to the Internet. Which suggests that, in the end, the Obama haters of the next four years may end up being less like Clinton's crazy--if sometimes accurate--wingnut detractors, and more like the folks who dedicated themselves to critiquing George W. Bush. Instead of focusing on, say, rumors of Bush’s drug abuse, Bush antagonists mainly set themselves at criticizing bungled wars and drowned cities. For Obama, that happy precedent would mean the only thing he has to do now is govern well.

Michael Schaffer is the author of the upcoming One Nation Under Dog.

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS

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45 comments

Mr. Schaffer - You seem to suffer greatly from selective memory. ave you forgotten: 1) Bush was responsible for the murder of a black man dragged by his neck behind a car. 2) Bush's 25 yo DWI was THE STORY right before election. Some dem operative got into sealed records for it. 3) Bush is a dry drunk and/or Bush is a wet drunk. 4) Bush had everything handed to him. 5) Bush is a complete dunce (until they found out his grades were better than Gore's) 6) Bush is not curious about the world. 7) Bush is a fundamentalist (gee, who knew about them metodists) 8) CHeney is the one running the show. 9) Bush was going to ban abortion 10) Bush was more rabid a right winger than Reagan. 12) Bush held the record for state executions 13) Bush lied us into war. 14) Bush was told about 911 ahead of time 15) Bush was in the pocket of big oil 16) Bush was going to destroy the envoronment 17) Bush will re-instate the draft 18) Bush planned to invade Iraq before he even got into office.....payback Saddam for trying to take daddy's life. 19) Bush lied about british intelligence. 20) Bush was out to destroy Valerie and Joe Plame 21) Bush family are crypto nazis 22) Bush went AWOL (to be repeated in 2004) 23) Bush choked on a pretzel while in a drunken stupor. 24) Bush stole the election (twice). 25) Bush talked down the economy to get elected. 26) Bush was going to force old people to eat dog food. But yeah...its the "right-wing" who are the "haters." Yeah, sure, thats the ticket.

- Mr. Gordon

November 26, 2008 at 5:02am

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We on the right will give President Obama all the respect the left gave to President Bush. That sounds fair, doesn't it? Let me get warmed up here. You may recognize some of the slogans from the last eight years: "Obama lied people died." "Obama is a dunce and an evil genius--all at the same time." "Obama blew up the WTC." "Obama was responsible for the murder of a poor, black man in Texas, who was dragged behind a car." All of the above are probably or certainly false. They were false about W also. But I didn't hear you complaining about left-wing haters. And that's just a tiny portion of the hate spewed about W. Don't forget the Cheney haters. Halliburton blah blah blah. Frankly, it is my fervent wish that we severely damage Obama's ability to govern early on. That will limit the damage he and the crazies running congress can do to America over the next four years. If it takes nutty slogans and false attacks to do it, I see no reason not to. It worked for you guys. Bottom line, the left has thrown out the last crumb of civility in politics. (I expect some rough and tumble in politics. That's the nature of the beast. But the last eight years have been one long regurgitation of hatred and lies by the left. And, it worked.) I don't see why the right lie down should govern itself by different rules. Maybe it will work for us too. Seems a little unfair to spew that crap for eight years and then suddenly declare that civility should return to politics at exactly the time the left will most benefit from it. It's too bad. I would have preferred to see the first black president succeed. But not at the expense of adopting his very radical agenda for America.

- Frank

November 26, 2008 at 5:35am

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This isn't unique to right-wingers. President Bush has had to deal with crazy left-wingers claiming 911 was a inside job for years, among other rediculous theories.

- Not Unique

November 26, 2008 at 8:54am

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Crazy wing nut detractors exist on both sides of the spectrum. Remember all those folks who claimed 911 was an inside job and that Bush himself had a hand in the destruction!

- Crazys everywhere

November 26, 2008 at 9:01am

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"...Different FROM..."!

- Saul Levine

November 26, 2008 at 9:24am

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There's never been a presidency without the opposite fringe idiots. Kinda non news.

- Oligonicella

November 26, 2008 at 9:37am

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On NPR this weekend someone called in to say that Obama is being sued in 17 states because of his missing birth certificate. The desperation and anxiety in his voice gave me schadenfreude.

- Marcy

November 26, 2008 at 10:49am

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Hatred in politics? You jest. I guess the only thing we can do is rely on the truth (or as close as we can get to it) here. Speculation, hyperventilation, hatreds aside (can we really do that?) , what are the ACTUAL and relevant facts, and what are the results of Obama/Bush governing? Factcheck.org etc,. must be the firewalls that allow us to proceed intelligently and kindly with our lives. IMHO Bush reaped the whirlwind. Obama is now up at bat. So, let's see. Reality does matter. Going forward, what should be the criteria for judging the Obama administration four years from now? How about a. change in national debt b. jobs lost or created c. average income, up or down d. the US's international reputation e. attacks in Afganistan f. change in number of those below poverty line g. number of students enrolling in college h. some objective measure of infrastructure improvements? Any other suggestions?

- Jan F.

November 26, 2008 at 11:37am

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Let's get those printed anti-Republican memes against the right out there and circulating en masse, right Schaffer? You're one of the extremist kooks, just a left-wing one.

- Don

November 26, 2008 at 12:05pm

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Why focus on nut jobs right or left? I voted for McCain but want Obama to succeed. The fringes from both sides have had a major hand in making the last two presidents fail. Would 9/11 have happened if Clinton was not besieged with the Impeachment nonesense?

- Dave

November 26, 2008 at 12:20pm

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"Frankly, it is my fervent wish that we severely damage Obama's ability to govern early on. That will limit the damage he and the crazies running congress can do to America over the next four years." So you are hoping that the president fails - hoping that the various current crises remain unaddressed and allowed to go on unchanged for the next four years, at least? Isn't this the sort of garbage spewed by left wing nitwits when they wanting to see Bush fail? Well, they got their wish and now look where we are. Frankly, my fervent wish is that the very few people on either end of the political spectrum who share your views are dead wrong. We can't afford for it to be otherwise.

- csmiller

November 26, 2008 at 12:23pm

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Yes so called progressives can't wait for the low brow red staters to get in line and kneel at the feet of Presidente Hussien. Well after the last eight years of enduring the vitriol and spewed hatred of the left, I would like to be a bigger person and embrace Obama and wish him well. I, however, have decided to embrace the hatred. Here is a little experiment for all you progressives. Put a McCain/Palin bumper sticker on your car and just drive around. See what happens. You will find that your fellow progressives are not quite as tolerant as you would imagine. Of course you won't do that because you already know what will happen. I won't play nice and I won't accept your extended hand as you NOW call for a partnership. You can all line up and smooch it.

- John

November 26, 2008 at 1:10pm

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I certainly agree, "kinda non news." No one with an IQ of over 10 paid any attention to the Nuts Against Bush, and we should all be equally ignorant of the Nuts Against Obama.

- Carter Howard

November 26, 2008 at 1:27pm

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Those crazy, radical, left-wingers; they accused Bush of entering a war illegally, lying to the UN and the American public on WMD, and bankrupting the country. How do they live with themselves?

- dturk

November 26, 2008 at 1:40pm

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Has anyone ever read The U.S. Constitution and truly understand it? "A Natural Born" citizen..... NO IF AND OR BUTS.

- OLDGADAWG

November 26, 2008 at 2:05pm

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Obama deserves a grace period of 6 months - 1 year. Then the gloves come off. That's 6 months - 1 year more than the lefty jerks gave President Bush after he was elected. You can't sing about "change" and "how we can" and all these empty words and promises without being held accountable when it turns out to be all fluff. I have a right to get pissed and a refund when the damned stain remover "as sold on tv" doesn't do anything.

- jwl2672

November 26, 2008 at 2:41pm

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Whoops. But who's kidding whom? Who is the leftist equivalent of R. M. Scaife? Nobody. That's who.

- Phil

November 26, 2008 at 2:55pm

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I didn’t like George W Bush in the 2000 campaign. I thought he seemed rather dim-witted, careless, disengaged, incurious, thoughtless, inarticulate, and would probably turn out to be an embarrassment to his office and his country. His performance over the last eight years has done nothing to disabuse me of any of those first impressions. But I am a loyal, patriotic American. Therefore even in my worst nightmares about George W Bush, I never for a moment hoped he would fail, or wished, in the words of Frank (second post above), to “damage his ability to govern.” How could any patriotic American wish for a failed presidency? Frank, that is a despicable, seditious sentiment – and you are not merely a vile hatemonger; you are a traitor.

- Bob

November 26, 2008 at 3:09pm

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At least Bush did a couple of things, e.g. started a war we couldn't win on fake "evidence," to warrant all the hostility. Obama hasn't had a chance yet, and the loonies are already on the prowl.

- ironyroad

November 26, 2008 at 3:16pm

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"Bush lied people died" That slogan was in reference to the lies the Bush administration pushed to sell the Iraq war to the American people. Bush did in fact lie, and people did die as a result of the Iraq war. (Do you disagree? Would you prefer: "The Bush Administration intentionally misled, people bled?) In any case, this is clearly a slogan regarding a policy issue.

- intern

November 26, 2008 at 3:21pm

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Gordon, What is so funny about your list is that a number of them are just plain facts. Why do you insist on seeing them as disrespect?

- Northern Observer

November 26, 2008 at 3:33pm

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Wow, all of your comments are completely pathetic. With a very watchful eye on our mainstream media, I never saw any serious criticism of major policy blunders of the Bush years. We had plenty of mainstream coverage of the non-scandals or mini-scandals of the Clinton years, but the media do a great job cycling the ridiculous ad hominem style attacks on either candidates I guess, but my main concern is with bad public policy, which we have had in unprecedented abundance during the Bush years, while the Clinton years had more policy successes than policy screwups. I can easily list the errors of the Bush years, how about ignoring NSA warnings about Bin Laden, not sending ground troops in operation Anaconda to capture or kill Bin Laden at Tora Bora, how about cutting spending on nuclear non-proliferation, letting North Korea develop nukes before bribing then nont to rather than bribing them not to before making nukes, doing nothing about energy conservation when we are possibly entering an era of peak oil, the Iraq war, the endless and stupid sabblerattling against Iran, supporting the dictatorship in Pakistan while doing nothing to aid Pakistani civil society, the enormous bloated defense budget while cutting science research and blocking stem cell research, the list of Bush's blunders goes on and on, but go ahead haters, prattle about Obama's personal imperfections and let the sane adults govern since your choice ran our country into the ground. You have zero credibility until you realize that the public policies of Bush and his administration were all die hard conservative policies, and they have been cheered on by the Republicans, and at last the results are blowing up in your faces while Bush is still in office.

- Jacob

November 26, 2008 at 4:30pm

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After all we have seen for the past 8 years, your article is nothing short of just plain laughable! Priceless . . .

- losing my liberties

November 26, 2008 at 4:34pm

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Given the circumstances, if Barack Obama respected this nation, he would prove it by the simplest and easiest of gestures - unless, of course, all this talk about change and hope was just a bunch of bull, and he's just "another politician." Here's the outline: 1. Under Hawaiian law, it is possible (both legally and illegally) for a person to have been born out of state, yet have a birth certificate on file in the Department of Health. A. From Hawaii's official Department of Health, Vital Records webpage: "Amended certificates of birth may be prepared and filed with the Department of Health, as provided by law, for 1) a person born in Hawaii who already has a birth certificate filed with the Department of Health or 2) a person born in a foreign country" (applies to adopted children). B. A parent may register an in-state birth in lieu of certification by a hospital of birth under HRS 338-5. C. Hawaiian law expressly provides for registration of out-of-state births under HRS 338-17.8. A foreign birth presumably would have been recorded by the American consular of the country of birth, and presumably that would be reflected on the Hawaiian birth certificate. D. Hawaiian law, however, expressly acknowledges that its system is subject to error. See, for example, HRS 338-17. E. Hawaiian law expressly provides for verification in lieu of certified copy of a birth certificate under HRS 338-14.3. F. Even the Hawaii Department of Home Lands does not accept a certified copy of a birth certificate as conclusive evidence for its homestead program. From its web site: "In order to process your application, DHHL utilizes information that is found only on the original Certificate of Live Birth, which is either black or green. This is a more complete record of your birth than the Certification of Live Birth (a computer-generated printout). Submitting the original Certificate of Live Birth will save you time and money since the computer-generated Certification requires additional verification by DHHL." 2. Contrary to what you may have read, no document made available to the public, nor any statement by Hawaiian officials, evidences conclusively that Obama was born in Hawaii. A. Associated Press reported about a statement of Hawaii Health Department Director Dr. Fukino, "State declares Obama birth certificate genuine." B. That October 31, 2008 statement says that Dr. Fukino "ha[s] personally seen and verified that the Hawai'i State Department of Health has Sen. Obama's original birth certificate on record in accordance with state policies and procedures." That statement does not, however, verify that Obama was born in Hawaii, and as explained above, under Hawaiian policies and procedures it is quite possible that Hawaii may have a birth record of a person not born in Hawaii. Unlikely, but possible. C. The document that the Obama campaign released to the public is a certified copy of Obama's birth record, which is not the best evidence since, even under Hawaiian law, the original vault copy is the better evidence. Presumably, the vault record would show whether his birth was registered by a hospital in Hawaii. D. Without accusing anyone of any wrongdoing, we nevertheless know that some people have gone to great lengths, even in violation of laws, rules and procedures, to confer the many benefits of United States citizenship on themselves and their children. Given the structure of the Hawaiian law, the fact that a parent may register a birth, and the limited but inherent potential for human error within the system, it is possible that a parent of a child born out-of-state could have registered that birth to confer the benefits of U.S. citizenship, or simply to avoid bureaucratic hassles at that time or later in the child's life. 1. We don't know whether the standards of registration by the Department of Health were more or less stringent in 1961 (the year of Obama's birth) than they are today. However, especially with post-9/11 scrutiny, we do know that there have been instances of fraudulent registrations of foreign births as American births. 2. From a 2004 Department of Justice news release about multiple New Jersey vital statistics employees engaged in schemes to issue birth certificates to foreign-born individuals: "An individual who paid Anderson and her co-conspirators for the service of creating the false birth records could then go to Office of Vital Statistics to receive a birth certificate . . . As part of the investigation, federal agents executed a search warrant of the HCOVS on Feb. 18, 2004, which resulted in the seizure of hundreds of suspect Certificates of Live Birth which falsely indicated that the named individuals were born in Jersey City, when in fact, they were born outside the United States and were in the United States illegally . . . Bhutta purchased from Goswamy false birth certificates for himself and his three foreign-born children." 3. Even before 9/11, government officials acknowledged the "ease" of obtaining birth certificates fraudulently. From 1999 testimony by one Social Security Administration official: "Furthermore, the identity data contained in Social Security records are only as reliable as the evidence on which the data are based. The documents that a card applicant must present to establish age, identity, and citizenship, usually a birth certificate and immigration documents-are relatively easy to alter, counterfeit, or obtain fraudulently." 3. It has been reported that the Kenyan government has sealed Obama's records. If he were born in Kenya, as has been rumored even recently, the Kenyan government would certainly have many incentives to keep that undisclosed. Objectively, of course, those records may prove nothing. Obama's refusal to release records at many levels here in the United States, though, merely fuels speculation. 4. Obama has refused to disclose the vault copy of his Hawaiian birth certificate. This raises the question whether he himself has established that he is eligible to be President. To date, no state or federal election official, nor any government authority, has verified that he ever established conclusively that he meets the eligibility standard under the Constitution. If the burden of proof were on him, perhaps as it should be for the highest office of any individual in America, the more-than-dozen lawsuits challenging his eligibility would be unnecessary.

- MIAMIMAN

November 26, 2008 at 6:38pm

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Wow, Mr. Gordon. Just keep digging that hole...

- wildone

November 27, 2008 at 12:23am

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It has been said that you are known by your enemies as well as your friends. The fact that Obama is despised by this cabal of rightwing kooks and professional haters makes me like him even MORE! They showed their ugly faces at McCain/Palin rallies for many weeks, yelling out things such as "kill him". By the way, was that uniformed cop in Fla. who slandered Obama at one of those rallies ever disciplined? He clearly violated the law by appearing and speaking in his public capactity.

- frilz1

November 27, 2008 at 8:43am

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The invading rightwingers who have surged this section with posts resenting the treatment poor Bush Jr received as president during the past 8yrs are laughable (I'm talking about YOU, Frank & Mr. Gordon!), especially the issues they bring up, such as Bush's DUI which was hidden by Alberto Gonzales and is 100% FACT! Their memories apparently do not go back further than 8yrs, either, since they have conveniently omitted the lies and slander President Clinton was subjected to by their side. Obama looks as though he will be a widely popular president, even by many who did not vote for him (check out recent polls showing him at near 70% approval). As we move into 2009 the professional Obama-haters will be viewed as what they are: NUTCASES!

-

November 27, 2008 at 8:57am

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Mr. Gordon - You seem to suffer greatly from selective amnesia and no shortage of ideological stupidity. 1) ??? -- "Bush was responsible for the murder of a black man dragged by his neck behind a car." 2) Verifiable Fact: "Bush's did get a DWI." 3) Verifiable Fact: Bush admitted to being a drunk prior to being reborn. 4) Are you really attempting to argue this is not true? -- "Bush had everything handed to him." 5) Verifiable Fact: "Bush is a an idiot." Gore was a Rhodes Scholar. Bush was a "C" student. 6) Verifiable Fact: "Bush is not curious about the world." 7) Verifiable Fact: Bush stated that "god" spoke to him prior to getting elected. 8) Verifiable Fact: "CHeney is the one running the show." 9) Verifiable Fact: "Bush was going to ban abortion." 10) Verifiable Fact: "Bush was more rabid a right winger than Reagan." 12) Verifiable Fact: "Bush held the record for state executions." 13) Verifiable Fact: "Bush lied us into war." 14) According to Rush Limbaugh? "Bush was told about 911 ahead of time." 15) Absolute Verifiable truth: "Bush was in the pocket of big oil ." 16) Absolute Verifiable truth: "Bush was going to destroy the envoronment." 17) No one ever said this: "Bush will re-instate the draft." 18) Verifiable Fact: Neocons planned to invade Iraq before he even got into office. 19) Verifiable Fact: "Bush lied about british intelligence." 20) Verifiable Fact: "Bush was out to destroy Valerie and Joe Plame." 21) This is arguable: "Bush family are crypto nazis." 22)Verifiable Fact: "Bush went AWOL (to be repeated in 2004)." 23) What the hell? "Bush choked on a pretzel while in a drunken stupor." 24) Verifiable Fact: "Bush stole the election (twice)." 25) I don't even know what this means: "Bush talked down the economy to get elected". 26) What the hell? "Bush was going to force old people to eat dog food." "But yeah...its the "right-wing" who are the "haters." Yeah, sure, thats the ticket." No, we just aren't stupid enough to believe the nonsense that gets peddled on right-wing talk radio. Fact are facts. And, if you can't be bothered to read or discern fact from your ideological fiction .... please avoid embarrassing yourself in forums.

- Paul

November 27, 2008 at 9:46am

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Well Obama hate will consist mostly of dumb, racist idiots. Like the ones in the South who seem to think children should face consequences for liking Obama. So they throw them off the school bus or threaten to suspend them. You know, pieces of human waste like that.

- Rainy

November 27, 2008 at 9:50am

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To Mr. Gordon: most of the items on your list are true, so I don't know what you're complaining about.

- City of Evil

November 27, 2008 at 9:55am

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Don't worry. The Republicans are so stupid they won't learn the lessons of hate taught so well by the Bush-Loathers for the last 8 years. Or version 2; don't worry. The Repubicans honor election results.

- kurt Mudgeon

November 27, 2008 at 12:36pm

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I won eight gold medals!

- mikey phelpy

November 27, 2008 at 1:53pm

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Oh Goodie!!! For a moment there - with all the yackity-yack about civility and "Team of Rivals" preemption - I thought we may have lost our capacity for partisan mudslinging and Beltway paralysis. Reading the posts above gives one heart. The trash talkers, wing nuts and conspiracy freaks are alive and well. Yumie! Now ..... about that little blue dress David Plouff tossed in the trash, and the body on the Potomac Park bench .... the one found with the Omama tattoo on its butt ...... and how about that birth certificate found in Dubai with El Obami on it in classical Arabic? And what about that box of ammunition found in Virginia with "no refills" printed on the label? Huh? Huh? What about that, huh? Come on folks! With a little imagination we can thoroughly trash this administration and settle the score, perhaps even before January 20th. All together now!!!! Ready?? (Remember, "They" did it to us!) Attack, attack!!!

- JKL

November 27, 2008 at 10:48pm

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All this is fringe stuff snd small potatoes. The important thing is that Obama and friends are captured by economic nostalgia for the glory years of 1945-75, when there was no one to compete with. They will, therefore, be bad for the opportunities of my kids and yours.

- elwin9

November 28, 2008 at 12:38am

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Why is it that the rationale for Republican misdeeds is mostly that the Democrats did so now we can. Sounds like 8-year old children. Are they really that unsophisticated?

- GEORGE BLANN

November 28, 2008 at 6:17am

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The author neglects a crucial difference between President Clinton and President-elect Obama. Mr. Obama, like most folks, didn't serve in the military, and that's okay, as he didn't actively avoid it through deceit. But Mr. Clinton appears to have actively avoided military service during Vietnam. Then he thought he should be commander-in-chief of that same military he said he "loathed" as a young man. To those of us who served in the military, that's not a small thing. In addition, though Mr. Schaffer throws it off with one line about being an 'ally to his detractors', the fact is Mr. Clinton's personal conduct in the White House fell below the line on several occasions, from unwise, unkind dalliances to an incompletely examined fundraising scandal, to last minute pardons of wealthy unscrupulous characters. Mr. Obama currently appears to have a discipline and a straightforwardness that Mr. Clinton lacked. That will serve him well. Most of us who disagree with Mr. Obama's policies don't question his fitness for the office in the area of character. We did question Mr. Clinton because it appeared that for all his talent, he appeared to be a dissembling narcissist. History appears to have borne out those concerns. I didn't vote for Mr. Obama, but I'll continue to pray for his unfailing safety, for the continued comfort of his fine family, and for the energy, wisdom and moral courage he'll need to lead us in the next four years. Good luck, sir.

- Proud Citizen

November 28, 2008 at 9:40am

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You know, what's interesting about Mr. Gordon's post lising the "lies" of the people who criticized President Gump are that many of the "lies" he listed are actually true: - Bush DID have a DUI 25 years prior to the election. No Dem operative got into sealed records--it was a Maine reporter. And the records weren't sealed. - Bush WAS a wet drunk--a self-acknowledged alcoholic who quit cold-turkey at 40. - Bush DID have everything handed to him--Andover, Yale, the whole 9 yards. He ran 3 companies into the ground, and got where he was through Daddy's people and contacts. - His grades were NOT better than Gore's. - Bush himself acknowledged that he was not particularly curious about the world, or public policy for that matter. - As Chief Executive of Texas, Bush DID lead the nation in executions. - Bush DID lie to get us into war, and he lied about the uranium from Africa. - Bush WAS looking for any excuse to invade Iraq once he took office. One of the first things he did after 9/11 was to pull Richard Clarke (terrorism czar) aside and ask him to find connections to Iraq--not whol did it, but the Iraq connection. Clarke protested that he and his team already had and had found nothing, but Bush persisted. It is now completely documented and well-known that Iraq had NOTHING to do with 9/11. - Bush DID go AWOL during his reserve (ANG) commitment. He failed to show up for several drill weekends and his flight physical, for which he lost his wings. The right-wing hate and propaganda machine in its current form has been in operation for quite some time (this is for Frank, too, who curiously seems to think that the political discourse went down the tubes only after Bush was selected!). It started with Lee Atwater, was perpetuated by Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter, et al, and driven into the new millenium by Rove and right-wing media copycats (Glenn Beck, Mark Levin, etc.). Al Franken was able to put an entire book of right-wing lies and bile together in 2000! So Frank, you should go back to the 90's, when Clinton was in office and boondoggles such as Whitewater, Filegate, Travelgate, and Lewinsky were foisted onto the American people by a bunch of sore losers, who had no original ideas of their own and were capable only of criticizing others--traits which continue with the right wing to this day.

- The Realist

November 28, 2008 at 10:19am

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After what the republicans did to Clinton, I wasn't read to make nice with Bush. Fortunately for finding fault, but unfortunately for the US and the world, Bush himself gave more than enough reason to say things like, "Bush Lied People Died." You know, er, the truth? Granted some many not like it, but I didn't like, nor did I defend that Clinton lied about oral sex. When the repubs said, "A lie is a lie." I couldn't argue. You see, my integrity is too important to me to give it away. I teach my children not to try to defend something that is obviously wrong because it makes them lose their credibility. Sadly, as the last two elections have shown, the once great party is becoming more and more irrelevant... almost to the point where all I can do is shrug my shoulders, give the appearance of sympathy and say, "I'm sorry. I can see your lips moving... but I just can't seem to understand what it is you are saying."

- Darren7160

November 28, 2008 at 3:49pm

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This article takes some indeed fringe and kooky allegations against Obama and uses these to dismiss other, more valid, critical enquiries made of Obama. I'm concerned, for example, about Obama's mentor when Obama was young, Frank Marshall Davis - a member of CPUSA, and a communist of the Stalinist camp - and how this relationship may or may not have shaped Obama's outlook. I'm concerned about his 20 year involvement with Rev. Jeremiah Wright, a race-baiting and conspiracy-theory-spreading preacher - described by Obama as a guide and confidant (with some different positions taken once the 2008 campaign started : "like an uncle who says things one disagrees with", followed by denial and then denunciation of the preacher). I'm also concerned about Obama's relationships, personal and working, with William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn - known domestic terrorists who got off sentencing scott-free on an investigative technicality (unsanctioned wiretaps). (I'm concerned, coincidentally, that Ayers, self-described communist ("with a small 'c'") and anti-USA terrorist, is now a professor at university teaching students (and this makes me wonder about the staff at that university). Finally, I'm concerned that the mainstream media's reporting on all of this this has either been altogether non-existent, or otherwise mild and dismissive enough as to allow Obama the pass. ("It's politics - he has to play the game.").

- amral

November 28, 2008 at 6:55pm

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Both right and left ignore one of the biggest accomplishments of the Obama candidacy. He won by respectable margin despite the smears, etc. thrown at him. McCain's negative attacks backfired against him. The election of Obama was a rejection of divisive, false charges by the majority of the electorate. The 'crazies' have only the media left as allies.

- CAMtwo

November 30, 2008 at 4:52pm

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Nice try to immunize yourself before the coming birth certificate tsunami. Why is Obama fighting tooth-and-nail against the release of this and other important documents? Because he is an empty suit conman, and you know it. Oh, well, I'm sure your corporate overlords will give you some credit for trying. Hack much?

- Alex

November 30, 2008 at 5:29pm

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Great Britain, France, Germany, Poland, Italy all thought Iraq had WMD and so did Bush, yet because we couldn't find any there, it was Bush who lied.

- JohnB

December 1, 2008 at 12:39pm

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Personally, I want any President to improve life for everyone in our country and improve the USA's standing worldwide. Person can frickin have S&M sex in the Oval Office, worship made-up videogame gods, write love letters to prisoners in college, get addicted to cheap soda pop, and find babies repulsive...whatever, if they do a good job making life better in this country, that's all I care about. I also think it's our patriotic duty to hold any elected official responsible for any decisions or lies made on-the-job that *are* harmful. (If it involves people dying, being exposed to disease, or forced into poverty, etc. for example.) Cutting out the high-school gossip level of "omg like he talked to that other dude and totally said he drank too much like twenty years ago" things means we hear the really important stuff that much better. Won't happen until both sides get past the rivalry junk so they can focus on what matters, though...

- independent

December 3, 2008 at 7:03am

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i take it non of you people read or have selective reading. 9/11 = planned, open your eyes people. idiots

- smsm

July 23, 2009 at 11:38am

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I dont believe anyone wanted Bush to fail in the beginning. Once he was classified as an EPIC fail then we didnt want him in the seat of our leader anymore , but we didn't have much say in that, now did we? I surely didn't want Bush to rape America with no lube and then pass a shamed, broken, fearful country over to Obama to fix and then have all the haters blame what Bush caused on the man trying to fix it. I think people are very close minded, ingnorant and do not try to see all sides of every issue. We do not want whats best for AMERICA we want to HATE, we want to be selfish, its the only form of passion some of us are satisfied with and that is what is wrong with america today!!

- smsm

July 23, 2009 at 11:47am

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