President Barack Obama
doesn't deserve the reputation he's had for his style and temperament
and for being gracious, civil, bipartisan and post-racial. He is often
ungracious, uncivil, hyper-partisan, race-oriented and vindictive. He
mocks and ridicules almost for sport. More than any president in my
memory, he often does not comport himself presidentially.
Why does this matter?
Well — if I even have to answer that — he is the face of America. The
left constantly talked about George W. Bush's swagger and his cowboy
diplomacy and how that damaged our "image" in the world and our
relations with other nations.
But George W. Bush was
nothing if not circumspect, discreet and respectful in his dealings with
foreign leaders and his dealings with his political opponents. He was
exceedingly presidential, demonstrating an extremely high respect for
the office he held and what it represented.
How the president
presents himself does matter for all the obvious reasons, but I believe
Obama's behavior and the public's perception of it are relevant for
other equally important reasons. He came into office with a reputation
for being sophisticated, gentlemanly, above the political fray and
open-minded. But it was a facade, facilitated by good looks, a seemingly
pleasant demeanor and an extraordinarily fawning — and forgiving —
media. He has been getting a pass on his unseemly conduct for way too
long, which partially explains the disconnect between his personal
likability and the unpopularity of his socialist agenda.
I believe that if the
public were fully attuned to how unpresidentially he has consistently
behaved, it wouldn't be as approving of him personally, and in turn,
politicians wouldn't be so afraid to call him out on his Machiavellian
and brutish behavior, the exposure of which would have an electoral
impact. If more people understood what I believe to be this man's actual
character, they wouldn't — in the face of his consistently highhanded
tactics in pushing each and every one of his destructive agenda items —
reflexively assume he's such a nice guy who means well. Then, they might
be more vigilant, and heaven knows we need megadoses of vigilance these
days.
I have theories about
why Obama is consistently getting a pass, beyond the media's corrupt
liberalism and the allies he's created through his racial and class
warfare, but that's another column. The point for now is that he is
getting a pass, and his behavior is increasingly indefensible.
We talk about Obama as
a graduate of Saul Alinsky's school of thuggish street agitation, but it
is more than just a casual charge.
He is Alinsky personified with a disarming
smile. It's not just a matter of his having embraced a political
strategy that involves hitting below the belt and abusing power to help
his friends and hurt his enemies. His behavior is not just a tactic;
it's part of who he is. It is apparent that he has been coddled so long
that he simply has zero tolerance for any opposition.
Indeed, he is exactly
the opposite of who he billed himself to be: "I will bring a new type of
politics to Washington." As a committed liberal ideologue, he is neither
a uniter nor one willing to consider both sides of an issue. But it's
not just his extremist views that are divisive. He is also often
personally divisive, petty and mean-spirited.
From the time he
cavalierly dismissed Hillary Clinton during a presidential debate with
"You're likable enough, Hillary," I knew some cold blood ran through his
veins. As president, he has been gratuitously nasty with people who have
dared oppose him, and he has affirmatively targeted and demonized entire
industries to advance his agenda.
Consider: his command
that "the folks who created the mess" not "do a lot of talking"; his
endless scapegoating of George Bush; his rude treatment of foreign
leaders, from Britain's Gordon Brown to France's Nicolas Sarkozy; his
abominable treatment of Israel and its leader, Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu; his character assassination of inspector general Gerald
Walpin for blowing the whistle on his friends; his demonization of
surgeons and primary care physicians as dishonest mercenaries,
Republicans as "liars," secured creditors as "speculators," tea partiers
as "domestic terrorists," Arizonans as "irresponsible," rural Americans
as bitter clingers and America itself as being "dismissive," "arrogant"
and "derisive" and as having "a responsibility to act" because it is the
only nation to have ever "used a nuclear weapon"; his vilification of
Wall Street "fat cat" bankers, big pharma, big oil, insurance companies,
big corporations, corporate executives, Cambridge policemen,
conservative talk show hosts and Fox News; his snubbing even of the
liberal press pool; his egomaniacal behavior at the health care summit;
and his administration's flirtation with criminalizing Bush-era
officials for their legal opinions.
David Limbaugh is a
writer, author and attorney. His book "Bankrupt: The Intellectual and
Moral Bankruptcy of Today's Democratic Party" was released recently in
paperback. To find out more about David Limbaugh, please visit his Web
site at www.DavidLimbaugh.com. To read features by other Creators
Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page
at
www.creators.com.