Hope and Change Take Sides
Calling it like it is: Karl Rove last week may have seen a thread of straw men running through Obama’s rhetoric, but I think he fell short of really elucidating Obama’s quasi-McCarthyite M.O. (via Instapundit) of eschewing policy arguments for political bogeymen.
It is cheap and lazy from the President to try to communicate his policies in that way, considering that he has to be capable of making better arguments. He was a law professor for Pete’s sake!
There will always be a constituency out there that really responds to political bogeyman tales, but the campaign is over; and the President should remember that he is – or at least should aim to be – everyone’s President.
Pitting Americans against each other for the sake of political expediency is despicable; and I’d like to believe that the President is being an incompetent communicator rather than practicing ObaMcCarthyism. Talking us down á la Carter is one thing. But applying the old maxim of Divide and Conquer to the American people while in office is another. Wedge issues should not be part of the Oval Office’s leadership toolkit.
