Peter Robinson, former Reagan speech writer, observes of the inaugural address:
George W. Bush had gone to exceptional lengths to ensure a smooth transition, even making some unpopular moves — such as asking Congress to release some $350 billion bailout funds — to spare Obama the trouble. Obama offered Bush no more than a single, curt sentence of thanks. Then he blamed Bush for the economic crisis, denouncing his “failure to make hard choices” — as if Bush hadn’t attempted to deal with the crisis by enacting a stimulus measure of the very kind Obama himself now proposes — and accused Bush of “protecting narrow interests.” For that matter, the new president all but ignored the principal task of any inaugural address, that of reuniting the nation after the divisiveness of a campaign. Almost 60 million Americans cast their ballots for Sen. John McCain. What did Obama have to say to his opponents? “What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them.” Some olive branch.
And the same smallness of spirit is showing up in rhetoric directed toward the Republicans in Congress.
At a White House meeting he throws an elbow (”I won“) and chides them for supposedly following the dictates of radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh. (The Beltway Republicans are not above the latter, by the way, but their objections to the “stimulus” plan are on sound policy grounds.) Anyone who gets in his way is just opposed to “change.”
At one point will the media begin reporting honestly that this guy is no different than the Pelosi or Reid or Kennedy or any of the other partisans in the Democratic party.
Oh hell... what am I thinking... I used the words 'reporting' and 'honestly' together.
Not smart.
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