But no president in our nation's history has ever been castigated, condemned, mocked, insulted, derided and degraded on a scale even close to the constantly ugly attacks on Obama. From the day he assumed office — indeed, even before he assumed office — he was subjected to unprecedented insults in often the most hateful terms.

He has been accused of being a "secret Muslim" and born in Kenya, of being complicit with the Muslim Brotherhood, of wearing a ring bearing a secret verse from the Quran, of having once been a Black Panther, of refusing to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, of seeking to confiscate all guns, of lying about just about everything he has ever said, ranging from Benghazi to the Affordable Care Act to immigration, of faking Osama bin Laden's death and of funding his campaigns with drug money.

It goes on and on and on. Even the president's family is treated by his political enemies with disrespect and disdain.

If one browses even respectable websites, one can readily find bumper stickers, coffee cups and T-shirts for sale with such messages as: "Dump This Turd" (with an image of Obama); "Coward! You Left Them To Die in Benghazi" (with an image of Obama); "Somewhere in Kenya A Village Is Missing Its Idiot" (with an image of Obama); "Islam's Trojan Horse" (with an image of Obama); "Pure Evil" (with an image of Obama); "I'm Not A Racist: I Hate His White Half Too" (with an image of Obama); "He Lies!" (with an image of Obama); and on and on and on.