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Today alone I heard on two mainstream broadcast news networks the question "Is Obama doing too much too soon?" They almost OPENLY COMPLAIN that the (quote) "President has taken action on almost every major policy issue in his first 50 days.
Good old Jake the GOP-SHILL-Tapper at ABC News and good old Matt Lauer and Chuck Todd and David Gregory at NBC and God knows who at CBS, I know Bob Schieffer for another one, at CBS...They and the minions of talking media heads are always seeming to just pass along straight GOP talking points these days...In fact,there is a concerted press campaign going on right now to elevate the right wing noise machine in ongoing attempts at undermining the public trust in President Obama and mitigating Obama’s still immense popularity, with the goal of also sowing seeds of doubt about his policies wherever they can.
All these 'second-guessers' were nowhere to be found when GW Bush was in office. No public carping and pulling the rug out from under Bush when there should have been some. But now if the GOP can't act as obstructionists on congressional votes, then they seek to covertly mobilize their allies at the mainstream media news networks to appear on all the talk shows and newswires to try and blame Obama for the recession, and they attempt to undermine confidence in his choices of cabinet members, his agenda. They do this in an attempt at undermining public confidence in his leadership ability and cast doubt on the way he is laying out his way forward.
It is not too hard to see that their goal is to pull him down anyway they can while not overtly appearing to do so.
I can’t say where I read it but I did read somewhere that there is a billionaire right winger with the last name of Koch that has put up a huge amount of money to reverse the recent election through the backdoor. Rober Parry in his recent article appearing in Op-Ed News said that this whispering press campaign calling into question everything Obama does and getting in the way of him putting forward his policy proposals by way of slander, doubt and obstruction are all tools the Republicans and their allies use to disseminating what – in a covert operation – would be called “black propaganda.” We see such ‘black propaganda’ evidenced in the use of exaggerated criticisms involving both ad hominem attacks on Obama (accusing him of essentially treason and dictatorial behavior, i.e., a socialist takeover of the machinery of the US government ) and manufactured scandals, like the Obama cabinet members who have had to step down from their nominations for one reason or another.
The old phony issues of Obama's citizenship, his supposed coziness with the enemies of America overseas, his untrustworthiness as commander in chief, his supposedly engaging in communist style class warfare against "businesses in a time of recesssion" (a synonym for asking the upper 2 % of income earners to return to the Clinton era tax rates) ... As they did with Clinton, the GOP is hoping to strangle the young Democratic administration in its cradle.
We see many of the same tactics that were used on Clinton in his presidency being recycled for Obama: 'Black propaganda ' was used on Clinton regarding the health care debate and then later his conduct of the UN police action in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and then of course the manufactured scandal over Watergate and finally the attempt at bringing impeachment. Just as the vast right wing conspiracy did to Clinton even at a time when the country wasn't in the dire economic straits it is now, so now they do to Obama right at the outset in a time of severe crisis. This could not be more UN-patriotic or seditious if they tried.
Freedom of speech is one thing but undermining the legitimate functioning of public policy and duly elected officials and the sowing of discord and doubtt-provoking questions implying Obamas incompetence and poor leadership skills in dealing with this severe recession is simply way over the top. The same people who created this recession now show that along with Rush Limbaugh they want Obama to fail. They call into question his very ability to implement policies desperately needed for the recovery of the country during the worst crisis since the Great Depression. It is akin to hindering a fireman from putting out a fire and creating deliberate confusion so as to get in the fireman's way.
It is cynical for these GOP operatives to imply that Obama is making all kinds of mistakes in judgment this soon into his presidency. And it is certainly the pot calling the kettle black, given the record of their tenure in power being such an all out disaster. Calling him names like "socialist" and "radical" is an attempt to launch a pre-emptive strike so as to undermine President Obama's very ability to implement his policies. How can we know if he has failed or succeeded if he doesn't even get a chance? And why would the Obstructionist-Treason-Party (GOP) even want him to fail? Do they care nothing for the wellbeing of the American people. He fails, we all fail.
They even question not only what he does but the sequence of when he does it. As if they were experts in the fight against the recession. And this outrageous attempt at second guessing is becoming a parlor sport among these overprivileged network pundits who have a monopoly of the airwaves, in the absence of any Fairness Doctrine.
The new line of attack seems designed to blunt Obama’s flurry of proposed reforms to our system, and these are reforms which have been stymied and delayed for 30 years while the Republicans essentially were in the driver’s seat with regard to national policy. The GOP didn't get their way on the Stimulus vote and so now they want to move the goal posts again to call into public doubt the President’s competence to lead and the decisions he makes in his leadership.
We are seeing this obstructionist party of arsons who burned down America now going into the old "Contract Against America" playbook, the impeaching-hypoocrite himself, Newt Gingrich's, old playbook to try and destroy the man the majority of Americans elected to dig us out of the mess created by the previous Republican administration.
In case anyone doubt this, read all about it in articles from Op-Ed News and the "Huffington Post" respectively.
