Remember the dawning of the Age of Obama? It was to be a blissful time when we could all get beyond this silly "blue state" and "red state" nonsense that divided us for too long and unite together under the post-partisan presidency of Obama and his soaring and inspiring rhetoric. Yeah, it does seem like a long time ago, doesn't it? Excerpt from an editorial in today's WSJ called Paul Ryan's Hunger Games:
Did you hear about the GOP's red-in-tooth-and-claw plan for Medicare? Grandma and Gramps are going to be drafted for the Hunger Games.
Mr. Obama has been working Mediscare for the last year, but he is also debuting some new material, each layer thicker than the last. Modern Republicans are so radical that they oppose research and care for Alzheimer's, cancer, AIDS, autism and Down Syndrome, even as they want to deny education and food to children and their mothers. They want to pave over Yellowstone and backfill the Grand Canyon. But few tourists could get there anyway, because Republicans plan to shut down air traffic control too.
Because Republicans have criticized the Administration's torrent of costly new rules across the entire economy, therefore they favor returning to a state of regulatory nature, with no rules at all. Because Republicans oppose high-speed rail, therefore they would have opposed industrialization in the 19th century. They do plan to build a wayback machine to the Gilded Age, however, by handing a $150,000 check to every American millionaire, a million-dollar check to every billionaire, and a billion-dollar check to every trillionaire.
"This is not conjecture," Mr. Obama said. "I am not exaggerating. These are facts." Lest you think we exaggerate, read the transcript.
These are facts? Sure they are Mr. President. The fact that President Obama now has to fall back to using the same sort of scare strategy that Democrats have employed going back to at least the Age of Reagan should be an encouraging sign to Republicans. It means that he's got nuthin'. No ideas, no accomplishments, no plans or vision for the future. The ONLY way he can hope to win reelection is to frighten enough gullible voters with absurd images of the Republican bogeyman lurking in the shadows.
The proper Republican response to such fear mongering is best exemplified by this recent video clip where Paul Ryan laughed off Obama's criticism of budget. Three years ago, Obama was a conqueror. Today, he's a clown.
