Pat Caddell, once the boy wonder of presidential politics when he polled for Jimmy Carter, and Doug Schoen, a moderate Democrat, have written a devastating article in WaPo that accuses President Obama of being "the most divisive president" in modern history.
Their case:
Obama is walking a knife's edge. He has said that the 3.5 million "shovel-ready jobs" he had referred to as justification for the passage of the stimulus bill didn't exist - throwing all the Democratic incumbents who had defended the stimulus in their campaigns under the proverbial bus.Although he said, as part of his effort to enact health-care reform, that the health-care mandates were not taxes, now his administration acknowledges in court papers that they are, in fact, taxes.
As Election Day approaches, the president and others in the Democratic leadership have focused on campaign finance by moneyed interests - an ancillary issue serving neither party nor country. They have intensified attacks on business groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and individual political operatives such as Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie - insisting that organizations are fronting for foreign campaign money and large secret donations and campaign expenditures. Even the New York Times has noted that "a closer examination shows that there is little evidence" that these organizations have engaged in activities that are "improper or even unusual."
It astounds us to hear such charges from the president given that his presidential campaign in 2008 refused to disclose the names of all of its donors, and in past election cycles many liberal groups, such as the Sierra Club and the Center for American Progress, refused to disclose their contributors.
Caddell and Schoen also peg Obama's partisan rhetoric as "Nixonian" in its emphasis on "enemies" and partisan warfare.
The question I have - that most of us have - is how so many can still believe that this partisan, liberal thug is some kind of moderate, post-partisan uniter. You have to deliberately ignore what the president says and does in order to reach that insane conclusion. Relying on one's perception rather than reality is the mark of a lost sheep in politics.
And even Democrats are beginning to realize they have been lambs led to the slaughter.
Hat Tip: Ed Lasky
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