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-Election 2012
What Drives the Obama Haters
2012-07-29
Even Obama 'doubters' are taken to task.
Yet another WaPo piece. They're all in for Champ.
In both the issues of Obama's birth and of his religion, documents and common sense lead in one direction. Obama's doubters run the other way: His birth certificates must be fake; his espoused Christianity must be a cover. Another group of right-wing doubters hold on to the notion that Obama is a closet socialist, some sort of Manchurian candidate, an idea that his every move as a pragmatic liberal politician over the past 16 years has utterly disproved.
Huh? We are clearly on different planets, Mr. Maraniss!
They keep praying for a Romney 'macaca' moment, don't they...
Some others maintain that he was not smart enough to get into Occidental, Columbia and Harvard Law, but smart enough to hide his transcripts and too inept to write his own memoir, which one particularly obsessed conspiratorialist claims was penned by the former radical Bill Ayers.
I thought Ayers admitted ghost-writing the book? And when did he become a former radical?
You need a scorecard to keep track of the lies, half-truths and misleading statements in just that one sentence...
What about the well-written letters from Obama that are published in my book? Those, too, must be frauds slipped to me by the Obama administration.
Maybe he can write letters, but he's still a socialist/Marxist.
In the introduction to my book, I took note of a sick political culture where "facts are so easily twisted for political purposes and where strange armies of ideological pseudo-historians roam the biographical fields in search of stray ammunition."
That cuts both ways, but of course, the MSM has more ink. And TV time.
That sentence is now cited on right-wing Web sites as evidence that I hold them in contempt.
If you pigeonhole all "right-wingers" with the "Obama Haters" as fitting the description above, you fit right into the "sick political culture."
And you do hold us in contempt, as demonstrated by the tone of this very piece...
True enough, one of the few accurate things that I've read from them. I do hold some of them in contempt, not because of their politics, nor because of their dislike of Obama. Political debate and disagreement are the lifeblood of American democracy. No, I hold them in contempt for the way they disregard facts and common sense and undermine the role of serious history as they concoct conspiracy theories that portray the president as dangerous, alien and less than American.
Can we agree on dangerous? And socialist, too?
While he's an American, he sees 'American' as radically different than we do. Can we make that a friendly amendment to your statement?
What drives them? Some of it can be attributed to the give-and-take of today's harsh ideological divide. Some of it can be explained by the way misinformation spreads virally to millions of like-minded people, reinforcing preconceptions. And some of it, I believe, arises out of fears of demographic changes in this country, and out of racism.
You knew that was coming, didn't you?
'Arises out of ... racism'. Adroit phrasing; the mouth-breathers on the Left will clearly get the beginning and end of his sentence.
Posted by:Bobby

#20  #15 He's not worth hating, that's the lefties don't understand. It'd be like hating bacteria or fungus. Posted by: Silentbrick

I'd go with comparing him to a crappy virus -- the kind your body throws off in a day or two, but while it lasts, you feel about as good as the economy of the last 3+ years.
Posted by: Old Patriot   2012-07-29 19:35  

#19  No, I don't believe he's a Muslim. I believe he is a communist.

Nah. Fascist. International fascist.
Posted by: Rob Crawford   2012-07-29 18:27  

#18  I, too, am a fan of the witch/wood/duck scene in Holy Grail.
Posted by: Perfesser   2012-07-29 16:56  

#17  I don't hate the man. I just want him far away from any position of power in this country so he can't hurt me any more than he already has.

You say ObamaCare is not socialism? Well it sure as hell ain't the free market so what is it?

No, I don't believe he's a Muslim. I believe he is a communist.

There is one quote, I won't repeat it, from Jeremiah Wright that give me cause to doubt that Obama is a Christian. I don't believe a Christian would have said that and I don't believe a Christian would have attended Wright's church for 20 years.

Clearly, there is room for doubt about the place of his birth. If, instead of having the initial lawsuit by a Clinton supporter quashed, he had produced a valid birth certificate the whole matter could have been settled four years ago. Why didn't he do that? Is that not a reasonable question to ask?

And why can't we see his college transcripts? Any halfway decent job I ever had, they wanted my transcripts. But these documents are not required for the President of the United States. OK. Maybe, legally, they're not. But it's called vetting and the MSM didn't do it.

Finally there's the race card. It always gets down to that. When all else fails they always play the race card and with Obama, all else has failed.

Now if you want haters, I remember the Nixon haters. They were a special breed with a deep, burning, irrational hate. Payback's a bitch, ain't it?
Posted by: Abu Uluque   2012-07-29 15:32  

#16  Maraniss is trying to get back in with his natural leftist crowd. They've been really pissed at him for actually, ya know, doing Journalism in his book. Conservatives jumped on the reveals that he inadvertently didn't whitewash. Bad mistake, David
Posted by: Frank G   2012-07-29 15:14  

#15  He's not worth hating, that's the lefties don't understand. It'd be like hating bacteria or fungus.
Posted by: Silentbrick - Schlumberger Squishy Mud Division   2012-07-29 14:11  

#14  Just as commies became greens, communist haters developed a strong dislike of Obama. Coincidence? Or perhaps changing the names around doesn't really fool people.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2012-07-29 14:00  

#13  Because we're racists. Happy?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2012-07-29 14:00  

#12  Having no male offspring is definately a plus. Just playing the virtual devil's advocate.
Posted by: Besoeker   2012-07-29 13:38  

#11  Beside, I don't hate him. I just want him to rapidly fade into an obscurity that makes Jimmy Carter resonate like Madonna. Welcome to historical insignificance.
Posted by: Bobby   2012-07-29 13:30  

#10  Love of Freedom?

Love of Truth?

Love of Prosperity for *all*?
Posted by: CrazyFool   2012-07-29 13:08  

#9  What Drives the Obama Haters

His Southside Chicago machine connections tops my list.
Posted by: Besoeker   2012-07-29 13:07  

#8  >What Drives the Obama Haters

A basic knowledge of economics is enough for me.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2012-07-29 12:55  

#7  ...they had no problem with it when directed against the enemies of the state their philosophical and political opponents. It's their 'New and Improved' civility narrative after they dragged that canard through their own cesspit.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2012-07-29 11:51  

#6  Since when did hate itself become a bad thing? It's as useful and appropriate an emotion as any of the others.
Posted by: Iblis   2012-07-29 11:15  

#5  What Drives the Obama Haters

Birth certificate, college transcripts, ghost authored 'autobiography'....Nah.
Oh, I'd say this little thingy.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2012-07-29 11:09  

#4  What a rag and a joke.
Posted by: newc   2012-07-29 10:52  

#3  Obama is easily the worst self inflicted wound on the US in the past 75 years.

That's a real accomplishment considering Jimmy Carter is the second worst.

Maraniss is a real idiot. almost all the comments about his book in the conservative press has been positive. Antagonizing conservatives never leads to success. Just look at "Law and Order". It was very popular until they decided to portray Christian conservatives as whacked out crazies. Then its popularity took a nose dive.
Posted by: Frozen Al   2012-07-29 10:49  

#2  I might also like to know: "What drives Obama lovers.?" His Presidency is a disaster.
Posted by: JohnQC   2012-07-29 10:16  

#1  Obama is easily the worst self inflicted wound on the US in the past 75 years.
How exactly did you expect the first American president to grow up not having had the American experience to govern?
Posted by: NCMike   2012-07-29 10:07  

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