Many people have very short memories, and many Republicans and conservative right wing activists have the amazing ability to rewrite history, and make former “demons” suddenly seem acceptable.
So is the case with President Bill Clinton and 2004 Presidential nominee John Kerry, both of whom have suddenly become “acceptable” and “mainstream”, as the smearing and character assassination of Barack Obama continues in earnest!
Bill Clinton was savaged, accused of every scandal imaginable, brutally mistreated by the opposition party for eight years, and put through the torment of an impeachment, which everyone knew would NOT lead to removal from office, but was designed to besmirch his historical accomplishments.
John Kerry was bitterly attacked, his record distorted, his Vietnam War service trivialized because he had the gall to challenge the war as a mistake, in testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee 42 years ago, and made out to be an unpatriotic American, while his opponent, George W. Bush, sat out his military service in the National Guard reading magazine, and often not showing up at all, all due to family connections.
Now, suddenly, you cannot hear enough praise about the Bill Clinton Presidency, including Paul Ryan this morning saying how different things would be now if only Clinton was President. This is an amazing statement, but only the most recent of laudatory comments by Republicans and conservatives toward the 42nd President.
And, suddenly, as Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry is nominated to be Secretary of State, the praise and compliments from his former Republican enemies is overwhelming, and he faces little opposition for confirmation. Nothing is said about his supposed “anti American” statements on the war in Vietnam before the committee he now heads, and how he will now be leading our foreign policy, an idea which would have shocked his critics just eight years ago.
The right wing is rewriting history, hoping that the memory and ignorance of most people about past events is forgotten.
Instead, the attention is given to making Barack Obama a demon, a threat to the nation, to make him out as a man unwilling to negotiate, when it is the opposition which has been intransigent for the past four years, and is still engaged in smearing and character assassination greater than either Bill Clinton or John Kerry experienced!
One would have thought any greater assault was not conceivable, but here it is in full throttle!!
And since Obama will not be coming back for a third term, one can already see the revival of the attacks on Hillary Clinton, as the Benghazi, Libya tragedy is politicized for all it is worth. And since she is a woman, of course she must be trashed, destroyed, eviscerated as the likely future enemy, as the right wing assault machine goes into full gear to elect someone they want, to reverse things back to the “good old days” of Ronald Reagan!
But of course, Chris Christie, by working with Barack Obama, is also, already, being smeared and trashed, because he actually has some “moderate” elements in him, and some views on some issues that does not fit the mold of the far right. Chris Christie, if he runs for President in 2016, will discover just how venal and vicious the attack will be on him for being a “traitor” to the cause, just as much as Colin Powell has been experiencing recently, because of his view that the Republican Party must change its tune, its views, its image, its principles, or face extinction.
It is often said that the media are tilted to the left, when in reality, the right wing media is very much in a time of prosperity and growth, with Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden helping to energize their conspiracy theories, the image that the Republic is in danger of destruction all because we have a person of color, a woman, and a man of principle and convictions, playing major roles in the development of our domestic and foreign policy!
As my mom would say, they suffer from selective memory.
No Professor, the Republic is not in danger because of President Obama’s race or Secretary of State Clinton’s gender. It is in danger because of President Obama’s ideological convictions and the progressive leftist statist agenda of the administration and the democratic party.
Hello Professor,
Here is a prediction for you. In a due amount of respectable time, President Obama will be coined or printed on U.S. currency.
Reason:
The first black President and the man responsible for bringing us out of the worst Economic Depression since the last 1930’s Republican caused Depression.
Thanks, Engineer of Knowledge, for your comment, and I wholeheartedly agree!
Juan, if it was not for Progressivism, we would be a 19th century”Gilded Age” nation, and be a country that was not promoting political democracy and social and economic reform for the masses, but instead for the elite two percent. We are recovering now from a distortion over the past thirty years, which has sadly made us more stratified than any advanced nation in the world, including Great Britain, which had been the most extreme in the distribution of wealth! The elite have had their heyday, made out like bandits, and now regulation and accountability are the direction, and we are not going back to the inequities of the Reagan–Bushes era!
We have escaped the ideological convictions of Reagan, which, had it not been for a Democratic House, would have put us into a situation of even greater abuse than has occurred. People forget the horrors promoted by ideologues, which when exposed by the news media and the Democrats, led to Reagan denying he had such plans. Things got worse when Bush II had a GOP Congress ready to do his bidding for the first six years, and it led to the domestic and foreign policy disasters we are now recovering from!
Abuse? Domestic disasters? Once again you seem to be blaming Bush for the credit and housing bubbles?
The Bush Administration was responsible for the disaster of Hurricane Katrina, the slow reaction to it, lack of concern. And it was on his watch that the credit and housing bubbles took place, with both Republicans and some Democrats involved, but with Republicans in the majority for six years. If you blame Obama for the jobs crisis brought by the Great Recession, when he has actually recovered all of the jobs lost, in his first term in office, then Bush can be blamed for the crisis arising.
Exactly right Professor! Thanks to Obama’s stimulus program, my job and other employees’ jobs at our local public school system were saved from the chopping block.
Ronald, please listen to your Democratic representative attacking Republicans who were warning about the fall out of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Of course , Republicans were accused of hating the poor and being racist. Maxine Waters is sums it up,”Mr.Chairman we do not have a crisis at Freddie Mac”. etc etc. So please don’t say the Republicans did not try to do something about it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yga7TlsA-1A . ]
Also, remember Franklin Raines? Good grief!
Juan, I do NOT defend Franklin Raines, and am no fan of Maxine Waters. Just because I am a progressive does not mean I do not roll my eyes at some of the extreme types that show up in either party. So I am not saying that the Democrats are blameless, but the Republicans controlled the majority for twelve years, and cannot shift all of the blame to the Democrats. But improvements in government execution of policies and better, more responsible communication is certainly needed!
Ronald, during the 107th Congress (2001-03 )was tied in Senate and Republican controlled, then Republicans controlled both Houses of Congress during the 108th Congress 2003-05 and the 109th Congress 05-07. Then the 110th 2007-09 went to Democrats with Senate tied and 2 independents and Pelosi controlling the House and the 111th Congress 2009-11 went both Houses to Democrats. So I really do not understand how you could say that the Republicans held the majority for 12 years. In my humble opinion both parties are responsible, within the Republicans the typical moderate establishment type who advances the liberal agenda and thus are loved by the media and Democrats, and the big government leftist progressive liberal democrats, who of course agree with all the housing intervention by the government. In the end we all end up paying the bill, except the politicians of course.
When I said 12 years, I meant from 1995-2007, that the Republicans controlled both houses except some time in 2001-2002 when the Senate was shifting, but the House was Republican all along. But I am not saying that the Democrats are totally innocent by any means.
The way I remember the economy becoming bad during Bush’s term is because that is when I began having panic attacks, due to extreme worrying about whether or not my job at our local public school system would be cut.