Obama's Rhetoric is the Real Catastrophe

[KSigkid]

Originally Posted by I.A.S.K.

@ last paragraph--I agree.

I can't figure out how to quote your whole post, so I'll just go off of this...I'll also say that some of the things we disagree upon are splitting hairs (defining "acceptance of his policies," how we define "hypocrisy" with regards to the issues, etc.), so I won't get any more into those issues.

From your comments, I think that we're fairly close in our feelings on some of the policy issues; there were some of Bush's ideas and policies that I thought had merit, and there were many that seriously perturbed me, as a Republican and as a taxpayer.

When I talked about "extreme times," and the criticism that goes with them, I meant that the decisions made are going to be polarizing decisions. Stimulus bills, bailouts, are sensitive issues, and they're going to rile people up on both sides. You see it here on GC...you've got one group that doesn't want to spend the money, you've got one group that's saying "You don't understand, it's not happening in your hometown," you've got another group that is very much in support of the social welfare aspects of it...there's just not a whole lot of middle ground.

My issue is that I have little patience for people who claim fairness or unfairness in the treatment of their candidate. We've heard for eight years how citizens felt that their criticism was stifled in the previous administration, and now they want people to keep their mouths closed regarding this administration. There are even individuals on GC who have said, to paraphrase, "Obama's the President, take it or leave it, no criticism allowed." It's by no means the majority of sentiment from supporters of President Obama, but it's a sentiment that's out there.

To me, there's ample amounts of fairness and unfairness in the expectations placed upon every President. While I agree that it's too early to evaluate President Obama's presidency as a whole, he's still made some decisions (regarding the stimulus, taxes, and handling of detainees) that are individually open to criticism. There are lots of smart people that have thought about these issues for some time, so they have every right to critique the way in which President Obama has responded to these problems.