Politico has a piece up today that opens with this absolutely ridiculous bit of asshattery:
Of all the unfulfilled campaign promises President Barack Obama made in 2008, the one that bothers the president most isn’t any squandered policy priority – it’s his failure to re-civilize what he views as an increasingly savage partisan climate.
Wait. The lack of civility in the country is President Obama’s fault?! Are are you kidding me???
Let’s recall what the President said when he spoke to Republicans last year:
[I]f you were to listen to the debate, and, frankly, how some of you went after this bill, you’d think that this thing was some Bolshevik plot.(LAUGHTER)
No, I mean, that’s how you guys — that’s how you guys presented it.
(APPLAUSE)
And so I’m thinking to myself, “Well, how is it that a plan that is pretty centrist…”
(LAUGHTER)
No, look, I mean, I’m just saying — I know you guys disagree, but if you look at the facts of this bill, most independent observers would say this is actually what many Republicans — it — it’s similar to what many Republicans proposed to Bill Clinton when he was doing his debate on health care.
So all I’m saying is we’ve got to close the gap a little bit between the rhetoric and the reality.I’m not suggesting that we’re going to agree on everything, whether it’s on health care or energy or what have you, but if the way these issues are being presented by the Republicans is that this is some wild-eyed plot to impose huge government in every aspect of our lives, what happens is you guys then don’t have a lot of room to negotiate with me.
I mean, the fact of the matter is is that many of you, if you voted with the administration on something, are politically vulnerable in your own base, in your own party. You’ve given yourselves very little room to work in a bipartisan fashion because what you’ve been telling your constituents is, “This guy’s doing all kinds of crazy stuff that’s going to destroy America.”
And I — I would just say that we have to think about tone.
It’s not just on your side, by the way. It’s — it’s on our side as well. This is part of what’s happened in our politics, where we demonize the other side so much that when it comes to actually getting things done, it becomes tough to do.
Let’s be realistic here. President Obama has repeatedly tried to tone down the rhetoric. He has done it tactfully. He has done it intelligently and he has done it as diplomatically as possible. The blame for the incendiary rhetoric and the uncivil nature of the political discourse in the country these days is decidedly NOT on him. It may, in part, be on Democrats but it NOT on him. I would point the finger at people that would put up images like this long before I’d point it at him:
This, I would argue, is the result:
Comic by Daryl Cagle
I’m just sayin’…
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