QUOTE OF THE DAY…. Pete Wehner, Bush aide turned media personality, is the latest in a series of loyal Bushies to write a column labeling President Obama “polarizing.” Michael Gerson, Bush aide turned media personality, got the ball rolling with a similar column about a week ago, followed by Karl Rove, Bush aide turned media personality, writing up a very similar column shortly thereafter.
Why, it’s almost as if a memo went out with instructions to these guys on what to write about.
Responding to the series, Time‘s Joe Klein has just about had it.
Given the fact that Obama had to take dramatic action, at home and abroad, to start lifting the country from the mess Bush made almost everywhere — and also begin to turn the country away from the myopia and greed of the Reagan era — it’s amazing that he hasn’t raised more dust or teabags. And, I should add the fact that the alleged polarization mostly results from the fact that Obama gets extremely low ratings from self-identified Republicans, who constitute an extremist shard of a party at this point, is a badge of honor. (Commenter sgwhiteinfla points out that the polarization is also the result of overwhelming — 88% — support from Democrats.)
In the long run, it’s a safe historical bet that Bush will prove more polarizing than Obama because he was such an abject failure in the job — I doubt we’ll ever see Obama submerge to approval ratings in the mid-20s, or launch wars peremptorily without cause or purpose. The constant sniping from Rove, Wehner and the others during Obama’s first 100 days is a deeply neurotic reaction to the enormity of their own cockups in office. It shows a profound lack of class or grace, but then, that’s no surprise with these guys, is it? They ran the country like thugs, and thugs they remain.
The “polarizing” talking point is certainly getting tiresome. The truth is, Wehner, Gerson, and Rove are relying on a recent survey from the Pew Research Center. The problem, of course, is that the Pew’s polling director made it quite clear that this “polarizing” argument is both unfair and misleading. For some reason, Wehner, Gerson, and Rove keep using it anyway.
But almost as important, isn’t it nice to see Joe Klein get shrill?
