Charles M. Blow: For The Obama Opposition: His term must be tarnished; his accomplishments erased.

The Obama Opposition
NOV. 9, 2014
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Charles M. Blow


He underestimated the degree to which his very presence for some would feel more like a thorn than a salve. The president seemed to think that winning was the thing. It wasn’t. Stamina was the thing. The ability to nurse a grievance was the thing.

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His term must be tarnished; his accomplishments erased.

Some people blame the president for not cultivating more congressional relationships, across the aisle and even in the Democratic caucus. There may be some truth to that, but not much, I believe. No amount of glad-handing and ego-stroking would compensate for the depths of the opposition. Nor would messaging.

This is a president who was elected by an increasingly diverse national electorate that some find frightening, a president who is pushing a somewhat liberal agenda that some have found intrinsically objectionable, and a president who is battling some historical personality tropes that many cannot abandon.

To his opponents, this president’s greatest sins are his success and his self.



MORE (right on!):

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/10/opinion/charles-blow-the-obama-opposition.html?_r=1