Senator Barack Obama campaigned for President against the “politics of personal destruction” and a future President who could “bring Democrats and Republicans together.” As President, Obama has denounced opponents of the Administration and brought partisanship to a new level. The latest attacks from the President and his allies bring to mind enemies lists of the past.
As a Senator running for President, Barack Obama sounded like a politician who would not use Chicago machine-style politics to demonize opponents and crush dissent. On December 15, 2007 in Waterloo, Iowa, Senator Obama said the following (as quoted by MSNBC) in response to charges of past drug use and lack of experience coming from Senator Hillary Clinton’s campaign:
There’s a history of politics being all about slash and burn and taking folks down and what I recall the Clintons themselves calling the politics of personal destruction, which they decried. And my suspicion is that that’s just not where the country is at. They are not interested in politics as a blood sport.
Evidently, Senator Obama did not like being the recipient of criticism, yet was perfectly comfortable using it himself to trash opponents later in his campaign and as President.
On August 23, 2008, Senator Barack Obama gave a speech with Senator Joe Biden in Springfield, Illinois. It was the first time the two spoke together during the campaign and Obama made some bold promises–promises that have been broken. As quoted by the Washington Post, Senator Obama said (hat tip to PolitiFacts):
So Joe Biden won’t just make a good vice president. He will make a great vice president. After decades — after decades of steady work across the aisle, I know he’ll be able to help me turn the page on the ugly partisanship in Washington so we can bring Democrats and Republicans together to pass an agenda that works for the American people.
As to the issue of if President Obama can bring together Republicans and Democrats, Politifacts rates this promise as “stalled”:
On the economic stimulus bill that passed in February 2009, only three Republicans in the Senate supported the measure, and in the House, no Republicans supported it. On the initial votes for a health care overhaul, he got one Republican in the House but no Republicans in the Senate.
Both these pledges to the American people have been breached. This President made promises that he either could not keep or never intended on keeping. Either way, the American people should take a second hard look at the President, because many of his former supporters are rejecting the President’s shift from unifier to Divider-in-Chief.
The tone of the President over the past two years indicates that this President, unlike President Bill Clinton, may not want to triangulate in order to work with Republicans. He may dig in and campaign against Congress for the next two years in an effort to win back the House and Senate. The President may also continue a disturbing trend of attacking American organizations and individuals who dare to oppose his destructive agenda. Expect gridlock in the next Congress if, as predicted, the Republicans win the House and increase numbers in the Senate. Also, expect more divisive rhetoric.
Mark Hyman wrote an excellent piece in The American Spectator titled “Obama’s Enemies List” on February 18, 2009 where Hyman previewed the current controversy over the Obama’s enemies list:
What America witnessed before the election and mere hours after Obama was sworn into office is just a sampling of what Americans can likely expect throughout an Obama presidency. One cannot help but reach the conclusion an Obama Enemies List is already being compiled and free speech restrictions are being considered. Fortunately for Obama he has no shortage of Congressional foot soldiers to help in his cause to muzzle critics and silence news outlets that refuse to adhere to Democratic talking points that are faxed directly into the network newscast teleprompters.
Hyman has proven to be correct.
I wrote in Human Events in October of last year “Enemies of the State” where I argued that the Obama Administration was engaging in compiling an enemies list to bully opponents into submission:
“Don’t create an enemies list.” Advice given years ago to President Nixon? No, a tip delivered just last week — from Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) to President Barack Obama. Alexander cited some of the announced enemies of Obama and his henchmen, including the Chamber of Commerce, Humana, Fox News, banks, investment houses, bondholders of General Motors and Chrysler, insurance companies and numerous members of Congress. Evidently if you dare to oppose the Obama administration, you risk ending up on the White House enemies list.
In this week’s Human Events I updated the list to include Koch Industries:
If you dare to oppose the Obama agenda, expect to become an enemy of the state. Koch Industries found this out the hard way. The New York Times reports that “with growing scrutiny of the role of tax-exempt groups in political campaigns, congressional Republicans are pushing back against Democrats by warning about the possible misuse of the Internal Revenue Service to audit conservative groups.” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R.-Iowa) and long-time protector of whistleblowers in the federal government, “and six other Republican senators [sent a letter alleging] that a senior administration official had improperly disclosed confidential taxpayer information in the case of Koch Industries during a background conference call with journalists.” The specific allegation is that Obama administration official Austan Goolsbee illegally disclosed information about the tax status of Koch Industries during a conference call with reporters. If proven true, this is a serious attack on the 1st Amendment rights of all Americans.
The Obama enemies list does not end at Koch. The President’s campaign arm, Organizing for America, had the audacity to declare the Chamber of Commerce a “threat to our democracy.” Erick Erickson has an excellent analysis of this allegation today on Red State.
Why would the President of the United States want to slander 3 million American companies, and their tens of millions of employees? Why would he assume them evil enough to subvert the law deliberately like this?
Don’t stop at the Chamber of Commerce. Add Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie to the enemies list. According to Politico:
Karl Rove charged Sunday that President Barack Obama has an “enemies list,” after the White House escalated its argument that Rove and others are orchestrating a flood of midterm-election ads paid for by unknown donors. The Democratic National Committee is attacking Rove and another top GOP strategist, Ed Gillespie, in an ad that is to begin a weeklong run on national cable early this week. “Karl Rove, Ed Gillespie: They’re Bush cronies,” the ad charges. “The U.S. Chamber of Commerce: They’re shills for Big Business. And they’re stealing our democracy. … Tell the Bush crowd and the Chamber of Commerce: Stop stealing our democracy.”
Here is the attack ad from the Democrat National Committee – “Stealing Democracy.” The ad accuses Rove and Gillespie of being “Bush cronies.” This is clearly an attempt to continue the Obama campaign theme from 2008 against President George W. Bush. They just can accept the fact that President Bush is not an issue anymore and they are desperately trying to bring him back into the campaign to make this fall election a referendum on Obama v Bush. Not gonna work. The ad characterizes the Chamber of being “shills for big business.” The ad ends by alleging that Rove, Gillespie and the Chamber of “stealing democracy.” I guess if you keep losing debates on ObamaCare and the Stimulus, it is time to fall back on the politics of personal destruction.
Democrats control both chambers of Congress, the Presidency and the lobbying gang on K Street. The American people are on the verge of rejecting those 2 years of control. Real Clear Politics has the President at a -3.1% approval rating, Congress at a -50.4% approval rating and Republicans up 5.8% in the generic ballot. The Administration and allies of the Administration have resorted to the politics of personal destruction and hyper-partisanship in a last ditch effort to stem Congressional losses expected on Election Day. It will not work, but expect President Obama to flex some executive branch muscle in 2011 to crack down on dissent and opposition.
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