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How Can Anyone Continue to Support Obama?
Front Page Magazine ^ | August 11, 2014 | Mark Tapson

Posted on 08/11/2014 2:31:43 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

The left’s kneejerk propensity for blaming George W. Bush for every disaster, from the Lincoln assassination to a bad hair day, has long served as comedy fodder among conservatives. But the serious psychological disorder known as BDS – Bush Derangement Syndrome – is no joke among President Obama’s faithful, who six years later still cling to the notion that Bush is the reason Obama hasn’t yet shown us the promised land and healed the planet as he promised in his 2008 nomination speech.

Last Tuesday, a bipartisan poll found that Obama’s approval rating has hit an all-time (for him) low of 40%, with his handling of foreign policy at a dismal 36%. And yet, for those of us who consider his presidency to be an unmitigated disaster, it’s difficult to comprehend why his approval rating at this point isn’t at zero. In all seriousness, how is it possible that 40% of Americans can still be giving him a thumbs-up? Obviously there is a variety of explanations: low-information voters, willful blindness, progressive brainwashing, or just plain stubbornness among those who can’t admit that their Messiah is a false prophet. And of course there are those radicals who are simply in ideological lockstep with his agenda. But BDS threads throughout it all; “it’s Bush’s fault” remains an unassailable article of progressive faith – and a very convenient excuse.

In a Fox News segment recently on Obama’s leadership, pollster Frank Luntz spoke with about thirty average citizens, half of whom had been Obama voters, about the President’s sagging numbers in terms of favorability and job approval. The bloom was off the rose for some of the disillusioned participants who had previously supported him, but others among the studio audience still stood by their man. A hardcore supporter with the nametag “Shelton” said he believes Obama “is doing an excellent job, considering the circumstances in which he took the office, and all the things piled on his desk.” In other words, as Shelton put it later, “he’s cleaning up George Bush’s mess.”

Even conceding that GWB did leave behind some serious fires to put out, it’s unclear how creating entirely new conflagrations – encouraging a southern border invasion, imposing upon us a health care leviathan, directly contributing to the “Arab Spring” chaos, alienating our allies and empowering our enemies, exacerbating race relations, dismantling our military, turning the IRS into a political weapon, to name some (but by no means all) – can be considered “cleaning up.” Almost six years into the Obama era, he hasn’t even begun to fix “Bush’s mess” – if anything, he has exacerbated it by overloading our national debt and expanding the NSA surveillance state. Obama isn’t cleaning up the Bush legacy – he is burdening us with his own.

Shelton disagreed: “He’s keeping the country out of war, he’s keeping the economy stable –” At that point Luntz interrupted him to turn to another participant who had been shaking his head in disagreement. When that man pressed him to name even one Obama accomplishment, Shelton again responded, “He’s keeping us out of war! Isn’t that enough?” Well, no, especially considering that he hasn’t done even that. Obama didn’t end the war in Iraq – the troop drawdown was scheduled under Bush, although Obama took credit for ending it until he began to be blamed for leaving a vacuum there for ISIS to fill. And Obama increased the number of our troops in Afghanistan where they are still dying (including a brigadier general, the highest ranking officer to die there); as of last year, we still have nearly twice as many there as when he took office. This is to say nothing of the future wars Obama is courting because he has demonstrated to the world that America under him is weak. This has not gone unnoticed by an empowered, resurgent Russia, China, Iran, and our non-state Islamic enemies. But in Shelton’s mind, Obama ended Bush’s illegal wars and so now “war is over,” as John Lennon sang.

Then a woman in the group urged, “Let’s bring back George Bush. Let’s have a great leader.” The suggestion was like a bomb going off in the studio. “It’s George Bush’s fault!” shouted one man. Shelton jumped in with, “George Bush lied about the Iraq War. He lied, and Barack Obama is getting us out of a mess!” This was the same man who moments before had said that Obama hadn’t lied about Obamacare or Benghazi.

Another woman agreed with Shelton, claiming that “[Obama] can’t clean this up in 10 years, 12 years, 14 years. This takes time. He’s just prepping the next President.” One man who didn’t vote for Obama pointed out, however, that “when Reagan took over from Carter it took him three years, but he solved it. When Clinton took over, he took two years, but he solved it. ”The Obama fans didn’t respond – evidently, rather than expect their man to solve problems, they just plan to keep blaming Bush indefinitely, or at least for the next 14 years.

In closing the segment, Luntz asked why we stop being civil with each other when Bush’s name comes up, and one gentleman complained that it’s because the left “keeps going back to Bush” instead of moving forward and taking responsibility for the current state of affairs. But of course that’s the whole point: without clinging to their delusional rationalization about Bush, how else could so many Americans convince themselves that nothing in the current state of affairs can possibly be Obama’s fault?


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Government
KEYWORDS: afghanistan; iraq; isis; obama
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Because liberals are always the smartest ones in the room. They’re never wrong and would never admit if proven wrong. That’s when they scream and walk away. Try and debate a liberal. Common sense vs. emotion. Once cornered, they sweat, flail their arms, yell and leave.


21 posted on 08/11/2014 4:25:28 AM PDT by albie
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To: DaveA37

The only thing “piled on his desk” (which is ours by the way, not his) are his damn feet.

…don’t forget the pack of KOOLS.


22 posted on 08/11/2014 4:26:38 AM PDT by albie
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To: Vaquero

Have you ever heard of a new NFL head coach ever complain that his team is loosing because of the previous head coach?
They start winning or their gone.


23 posted on 08/11/2014 4:27:26 AM PDT by reefdiver (The fool says there is no God. And the bigger fools sees direct evidence and rages against it.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

claiming that “[Obama] can’t clean this up in 10 years, 12 years, 14 years. This takes time.”

…very common for the sick mind of a liberal to say this. Anything they can’t explain “takes time” to fix. Then they tack on a time frame that covers several election cycles.


24 posted on 08/11/2014 4:30:49 AM PDT by albie
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To: Ken522

Yep, new word. Started with the funeral homes and cemetery managers, who I guess didn’t want to offend the bereaved by saying “ashes” (or wanted to distinguish btwn ordinary ashes and the products of cremation). It makes a difference to them bec the rules are different for handling & burial.


25 posted on 08/11/2014 4:38:43 AM PDT by AnAmericanMother (Ecce Crucem Domini, fugite partes adversae. Vicit Leo de Tribu Iuda, Radix David, Alleluia!)
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Did You Know?

The Current FReepathon Pays For The Current Quarter's Expenses?

Now That You Do, Donate And Keep FR Running


26 posted on 08/11/2014 5:13:37 AM PDT by DJ MacWoW (The Fed Gov is not one ring to rule them all)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
How Can Anyone Continue to Support Obama?

I guess if you are on the receiving end of the government goodies gravy train, you'll vote for anyone who promises to keep it going.

27 posted on 08/11/2014 5:57:36 AM PDT by Opinionated Blowhard ("When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.")
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To: jocon307

“I think the 40% approval rate shows very clearly the ongoing power of the MSM.”

Well said!

Remember the beginning of the nightly MSM news broadcasts with the death toll in Iraq? How about beginning the news with the price of unleaded gas EVERY NIGHT for year. If the MSM did not constantly cover Obama’s butt his numbers would be 20% or less. Even the African American would be abandoning him because they would remember he is half Cracker.


28 posted on 08/11/2014 6:03:51 AM PDT by woodbutcher1963
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To: EBH
"They must at all costs avoid blaming a ...black man..."

Racists think that just because he has dark skin that he's black!

He's Indonesian!

29 posted on 08/11/2014 6:30:07 AM PDT by rawcatslyentist (Jeremiah 50:32 "The arrogant one will stumble and fall ; / ?)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Ignorance?
Hate?
Bought and paid for?
To name a few reasons


30 posted on 08/11/2014 6:43:46 AM PDT by SECURE AMERICA (I am an American.ad Not a Republican or a Democrat.)
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To: TwelveOfTwenty

Amazing how much credit Clinton gets for inheriting a mammoth tech boom economy that started before he swore in, a military budget that was “able” to be relaxed with the fall of the Soviets,and a Republican congress that actually had a voice, a playbook and a set. One can only imagine the prosperity that could have happened with a real president during that time. It was Clinton that tore it all down with his phony Microsoft lawsuit. That day was when it started crumbling. It was Clinton that emboldened terrorists to attack us consistently and eventually leading up to 9/11. I find him absolutely disgusting.


31 posted on 08/11/2014 7:21:54 AM PDT by Phillyred
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To: Vaquero

I listen to KRLA 870 with Brian Whitman (liberal), Ben Shapiro (conservative) and Elisha Krauss (conservative) in the morning but every time Brian Whitman speaks up it is to support the democrat position no matter what.
He constantly excuses failure.

The people who support democrats excuse failure.
They are either incompetents or are crooks.


32 posted on 08/11/2014 11:34:12 AM PDT by minnesota_bound
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

33 posted on 08/11/2014 1:41:41 PM PDT by Organic Panic
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To: Ken522

I think it’s “cremins”.


34 posted on 08/12/2014 8:05:10 AM PDT by Theodore R. (Liberals keep winning; so the American people must now be all-liberal all the time.)
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