Marginalizing Obama...

I have some issues with President Obama but I am really tired of those who on the right try to marginalize Obama. They do so because they can not actually win a thoughtful debate on the subject. Like the wonderfully naive tea baggers (who you'd think would have changed the name by now), their anger is palpable but misguided. These guys get their "news" from Fox and the integrity-challenged Sean Hannity and other right wing nuts. They listen to the bloviator Rush Limbaugh, a junior college failure (yeah he FAILED junior college).

And honestly I find some of these comments, criticisms (socialist?) and ad hominem attacks intimate something far more ugly and disturbing about the accuser than Obama. But I digress...

We have Sarah Palin attacking President Obama. WTF?

Let's examine what I like to call this celebration of stupidity. On one hand we have a woman who took 6 years to graduate from the University of Idaho. who can't explain much less defend a simple foreign policy concept (Bush Doctrine), who thinks Africa is a country, who doesn't know there is a North and a South Korea and who thinks "What do you read?" is a trick question.

And then we have a Obama who earned his way through Columbia and Harvard Law (and Law Review as well making him on of the top students in his class) as opposed to Bush who was a legacy (they would take the village idiot and did).

Sorry but it is a no brainer for those willing to agitate their craniums.

Obama critics willfully ignore his record as President. Or they just don't bother to educate themselves, their hate being so irrational. So what has Obama really done?

Here's a very short list, cadged from several sources: he ordered Guantanamo closed. He signed a $790 billion stimulus package. He addressed the Muslim world directly in his Cairo speech. He addressed the matters of race somewhat remarkably with his WH beer summit. He made history by nominating Sotomayor to the very activist and conservative SC. He instituted enforcement for equal pay for women. He began the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. He ended media blackout on war casualties; reporting full information. He instructed all federal agencies to promote openness and transparency as much as possible. He put limits on lobbyist's access to the White House and on aides working for lobbyists after their tenure in the administration. He ended the previous stop-loss policy that kept soldiers in Iraq/Afghanistan longer than their enlistment date. He phased out the expensive F-22 war plane and other outdated weapons systems, which weren't even used or needed in Iraq/Afghanistan. He removed restrictions on embryonic stem-cell research while increasing Federal support for stem-cell and new biomedical research. He prioritized infrastructure spending (roads, bridges, power plants) after years of neglect. He allocated funds for high-speed, broadband Internet access to K-12 schools as well as new funds for school construction. And he put into place a US Auto industry rescue plan which helped both the economy as well as saving jobs.

Oh yeah, he won the Noble Peace Prize BECAUSE he preached diplomacy and discussion--two things conservative chicken hawks are afraid of-and because he restored US prestige around the world.

There's more but any rational person would acknowledge that the GOP attempts to kill health care have over shadowed some very serious achievement.

Obama did this despite the fact he inherited an economy in the toilet, huge debt and unregulated financial industry (thanks to both Reagan and Clinton).

Contrary to what these critics and windbags hear on Beck or Fox News, Obama's stimulus spending played only a minor role in expanding federal budget deficit. Many policies that pre-date the Obama Administration are key factors in the growing deficit. In fact much of the current deficit can be attributed to the previous administration’s policies. Nearly all federal spending in 2009, all federal taxes, are dictated by laws that were in effect before Obama took office. In short, what these conservative geniuses are railing against is a 2009 Federal budget put forth by Bush before he left office. So why are these folks attacking Obama for Bush's budget? For the same reason they blame Obama for the Bush Administration's inept bailout of Wall Street. They hope Americans will forget the timeline.

Like Reagan, Shrub left a legacy of mortgaging the future. There were two big-ticket Bush policies: tax cuts for the wealthy, which cost around $1.8 trillion plus interest in revenue; and the other being the Iraq War, which has cost at least $700 billion, and will cost more before we finally extract ourselves. And which we have yet to begin paying for!

So where were these self righteous Obama-haters-turned-deficit-hawks then? Why didn't they rail against a conservative economic policy doomed to fail which it did? Because they didn't understand it. Or they stood to profit from it. Or both. So excuse me if I don't take these folks and their opinions seriously. At all.

Facts are inconvenient things for conservatives these days. So save your breath. This country faces some daunting challenges. People can have varying points of view and still have a thoughtful yet civil discourse on very serious issues. But we are not getting it from Republicans or anyone else on the right.