The Othering Of President Obama

++Jon Parr at Dailykos has a column this morning about the long history of the GOP trying to portray President Obama as "The Other". Read it. He did all my homework.

++Besides Rudy's blasts this week, Scott Walker says he doesn't know whether President Obama is a Christian,Eric Erickson the same and D'nesh D' Sousa says you can get the black man out of the ghetto. The Last was said when President Obama appeared on buzz feed, an audience of 6 million younger viewers, to pump the healthcare bill. 

++I'm not sure what it would mean if President Obama didn't love the country and was not a Christian. I'll take him as is.

++But what does it signify? We are in the last two years of his presidency and with the exception of Rand Paul and a lukewarm Jeb Bush, Republicans still bring out this theme. 

++I think it is a distraction from the failure of the GOP-controlled Congress and the potential damage the GOP will do on the country and various states. What better than to have a distraction and pick your pockets. This happened to a lesser degree with the W. administration. 9/11 happens and the wealthy get a massive tax break while no one was looking. 

++The other aspect is that President Obama has put the voodoo on their hoodoo. He owns them and will for the rest of my life. There is no an email I received from a Republican that doesn't tie a problem in the country directly to President Obama. He is their master and they know it. The man has totally psyched out the GOP, despite their victories in 2014.

++Since the GOP decided to launch their presidential campaigns early,their candidates have to throw red meat to their base. They will campaign through the primaries and into the general election against President Obama. 

++Part of this is shrewd. They barely beat Al Gore because they forced him to divorce himself from President Clinton, a strategic mistake that cost him the election --at the Supreme Court.

++The Democrats have blundered twice in 2010 and 2014 by not supporting President Obama's policies. President Obama gave a clear pep talk to the DNC last week where he listed everything the democrats have done for the economy and pointed out that he was pleased that the GOP now is concerned by the wealth gap. 

++President Obama made the salient points. We have had the strongest job growth since the last time a Democrat was President. We have had the biggest debt reductions since the last time a Democrat was President. And we have had millions more insured by the ACA than at anytime in our country and health costs have increased by the lowest in 50 years.

++The GOP is going to campaign against Hillary Clinton on Benghazi and tied her to President Obama and force her to distance herself from him. That would be a mistake. She should endorse a litany of what he has done and then say we can do more. Not avoid the relationship. 

++As Jon Parr noted about the nativism that has emerged in this country,Robert Kennedy had referred to this as America's darkest underbelly. 

++The last week has brought our America The Awful and it needs to be countered or we will all pay a steep prices.