# Don't you think Obama is making a huge mistake in pissing off all the wrong people? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [May 14, 2013, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-you-think-obama-is-making-a-huge-mistake-in-pissing-off-all-the-wrong-people/658296 "2013-05-14T04:33:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-you-think-obama-is-making-a-huge-mistake-in-pissing-off-all-the-wrong-people/658296/41 "2013-05-17T01:21:44Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > I am on economic issues, sure. But I also know that the Republicans run a lot of horrible candidates and many of them aren’t focused on my issues, instead choosing to run on a religious right agenda. That’s when Democrats can win my vote, and they often do. When you only vote for one party no matter what, your vote doesn’t count. Oh, I’d vote for a Republican, if they had a set of policy positions that weren’t completely retarded. As far as I can tell the only thing they aren’t absolutely backwards on currently is nuclear power. ---
**Author:** ![NotfooledbyW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f475e1/32.png) [@NotfooledbyW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NotfooledbyW)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-you-think-obama-is-making-a-huge-mistake-in-pissing-off-all-the-wrong-people/658296/42 "2013-05-17T01:50:57Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > . . . and I don’t mean Republicans. They’re a given, I suppose, and provably ineffectual without unforced errors. No, I mean the fact that Obama and company are at least trending toward: > > (1) [Throwing Hillary under the bus](http://dailycaller.com/2012/10/12/author-ed-klein-as-benghazi-blame-nears-hillary-clintons-grow-furious/). Having the Clintons in his camp for the past four years has lulled Obama into forgetting what formidable adversaries they can be, when they feel their interests are at stake. > > (2) [Turning the press against him](http://apnews.myway.com/article/20130513/DA68MMQ82.html). They might be willing to play along with Jay Carney’s channeling of Baghdad Bob vis-a-vis Benghazi and the IRS, but having the Justice Department systematically comb through phone records of the world’s largest press service, and the personal phone records of its reporters? Whoah, Nelly. How many of those affected reporters and editors do you think were inspired to enter their profession by watching Redford and Hoffman in _All The Presidents’ Men_. > > (3) And perhaps deadliest of all, consistently attempting to [pin blame on the CIA](http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/oct/28/curl-dont-mess-cia/?page=all) for missteps in Benghazi and the “talking points” afterward. That could be . . . a very bad idea. > > So OK, the Republicans are buffoons, hurdy hurdy hur, yuk yuk yuk. But in reacting to their utterly predictable attacks on recent issues, wouldn’t you guys in Obama country hope that somebody might take the big O aside and belatedly explain a few facts of Washington life to him? Why would anyone at this point in time, post an opinion such as this, (CURL: You don’t mess with the CIA October 12, 2012 by Joseph Curl) that is full of myth, bolgna, and and all kinds of flawed outdated information about what happened at Benghazi? ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-you-think-obama-is-making-a-huge-mistake-in-pissing-off-all-the-wrong-people/658296/43 "2013-05-17T01:58:45Z")
> [@NotfooledbyW](#): > > Why would anyone at this point in time, post an opinion such as this, (CURL: You don’t mess with the CIA October 12, 2012 by Joseph Curl) that is full of myth, bolgna, and and all kinds of flawed outdated information about what happened at Benghazi? Well, it does strike me as awfully strange that all three of these scandals have erupted or re-erupted in the same _week_. If this doesn’t indicate the CIA, the Clintons, the mainstream press or _someone_ don’t have it in for Obama, then it’s a heck of a coincidence. Granted, it could very well be that, but isn’t it weird? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-you-think-obama-is-making-a-huge-mistake-in-pissing-off-all-the-wrong-people/658296/44 "2013-05-17T02:10:23Z")
The fact that all of these “scandals” are “re-erupting” right now says absolutely nothing about Obama. It probably does say something about the people who are currently pushing these “scandals”, though. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-you-think-obama-is-making-a-huge-mistake-in-pissing-off-all-the-wrong-people/658296/45 "2013-05-17T02:17:48Z")
That’s rather my point – who might that be? I doubt the Republicans have that much self discipline – ever since Lewinsky’s stained dress, they’ve embarrassed themselves by being much too eager beaver to seize on any potential scandal; and look how Romney shot himself in the foot by jumping on Benghazi before anyone knew what was going on. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-you-think-obama-is-making-a-huge-mistake-in-pissing-off-all-the-wrong-people/658296/46 "2013-05-17T02:33:22Z")
Well, you tell us: Where have you been hearing about all of these things lately? ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-you-think-obama-is-making-a-huge-mistake-in-pissing-off-all-the-wrong-people/658296/47 "2013-05-17T02:34:47Z")
The mainstream press . . . wait, are you suggesting . . . ?! ---
**Author:** ![NotfooledbyW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f475e1/32.png) [@NotfooledbyW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NotfooledbyW)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-you-think-obama-is-making-a-huge-mistake-in-pissing-off-all-the-wrong-people/658296/48 "2013-05-17T03:18:07Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > Well, it does strike me as awfully strange that all three of these scandals have erupted or re-erupted in the same _week_. If this doesn’t indicate the CIA, the Clintons, the mainstream press or _someone_ don’t have it in for Obama, then it’s a heck of a coincidence. Granted, it could very well be that, but isn’t it weird? The AP may have it in for Obama, but the Clinton’s??? The question may have been a bit relevant back in October… when we knew little about Benghazi either way… Obama just did HRC, and Susan Rice, a huge favor by releasing the Talking Points emails to the public. They released them to House Members months ago… The AP can’t worry Obama, since he’s done nothing wrong and he refused to apologize. A CIA al Qaeda infiltrator’s cover was exposed. Republicans accused Obama of leaking it for political gain and they forced AG Holder to recuse himself from the investigation because Republicans made Holder a suspect in the leak investigation. What better insulation against scandal is that. But your idea that Obama has thrown the CIA under the bus is quite absurd. There is nothing there… If you can make sense of it, in today’s environment please explain. Darryl Issa last Sunday on the Pundit Shows accused Petraeus of essentially carrying water for the White House. You need to rethink this one. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-you-think-obama-is-making-a-huge-mistake-in-pissing-off-all-the-wrong-people/658296/49 "2013-05-17T03:54:55Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > The mainstream press . . . wait, are you suggesting . . . ?! Then why did you quote a non-mainstream conservative news organization? The mainstream news isn’t creating the conflict. You have to trace it back to the original source. Legitimate news organizations don’t create news but just report it. Your group seems to stir things up by using deliberately provocative language. I don’t know about everything else, but on the IRS thing, Obama himself is creating the scandal by being stupid. He didn’t bother researching the issue before going full tilt on denouncing it. He didn’t even leave wiggle room for if it turned out to be unfounded. That’s political idiocy! See, I’m not some ideologue. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-you-think-obama-is-making-a-huge-mistake-in-pissing-off-all-the-wrong-people/658296/50 "2013-05-17T04:01:46Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > When you only vote for one party no matter what, your vote doesn’t count. This would be true if we were voting for the party because it was the party. But we aren’t. The Republicans repeatedly refuse to offer us anything, at least, as a whole. Despite how liberal I am, I have in fact voted for local Republicans because they didn’t toe the party line and because their opponent was just not qualified for the job. Thing is, this happens less and less often as you go up the chain. I have not been given a reason to vote for a Republican since 2000, and I wasn’t allowed to vote then. (I did vote for Bush in 2004, but that wasn’t because there was a reason to vote for him. I just was uninformed and misled. I didn’t at that time know what the Republican party really stood for, and was just voting what my friends were voting because Democrats were supposedly pro-abortion (not pro-choice). Oh the stupidity of 19-year-olds…) ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-you-think-obama-is-making-a-huge-mistake-in-pissing-off-all-the-wrong-people/658296/51 "2013-05-17T04:19:57Z")
I voted for Kerry because Bush was an impending disaster for the GOP. In the end, you voted for Democratic victory, you just didn’t know it yet. ---
**Author:** ![NotfooledbyW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f475e1/32.png) [@NotfooledbyW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NotfooledbyW)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2013, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-you-think-obama-is-making-a-huge-mistake-in-pissing-off-all-the-wrong-people/658296/52 "2013-05-18T21:58:19Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > I voted for Kerry because Bush was an impending disaster for the GOP. In the end, you voted for Democratic victory, you just didn’t know it yet. Well thanks for voting for who would have been a great President, but I never liked his choice of Edwards. Edwards scandal could have harmed Democrats severely had Kerry won. I never like Edwards That choice was a mistake even before we found out what a scuzzball Edwards was. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2013, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-you-think-obama-is-making-a-huge-mistake-in-pissing-off-all-the-wrong-people/658296/53 "2013-05-19T03:56:13Z")
If Kerry had been elected, it would have been a disaster on many levels. You’d have the VP forced to resign, the housing bubble still would have burst, and there would have been no Iraq surge, so we would have left Iraq in the middle of a civil war. Kerry would have damaged the Democratic brand severely and JOhn McCain would have become President in 2008. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2013, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-you-think-obama-is-making-a-huge-mistake-in-pissing-off-all-the-wrong-people/658296/54 "2013-05-19T05:18:46Z")
Doubt it would have been McCain. A weak Democratic incumbent would have encouraged much stronger Republican candidates to enter the field. Heck, probably GWB himself would have done a Grover Cleveland and run again, making him president all the way up to January of this year. How’d you like them apples? ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2013, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-you-think-obama-is-making-a-huge-mistake-in-pissing-off-all-the-wrong-people/658296/55 "2013-05-19T05:46:21Z")
McCain and Giuliani were the strongest candidates heading into 2008. There really was no one else at the time. Romney proved to be a prodigious fundraiser, and Huck showed surprising strength, but I think the primaries go pretty much the same way they did. No way in hell GWB gets reelected in 2008. More likely the family would have made room for Jeb if any Bush was going to get into the race. ---
**Author:** ![Cheryl44](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@Cheryl44](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheryl44)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2013, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-you-think-obama-is-making-a-huge-mistake-in-pissing-off-all-the-wrong-people/658296/56 "2013-05-19T23:04:16Z")
Maybe all of these “scandals” are to keep us from noticing Congress has nothing better to do than to try to repeal the Affordable Care Act again. ---
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2013, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-you-think-obama-is-making-a-huge-mistake-in-pissing-off-all-the-wrong-people/658296/57 "2013-05-19T23:30:07Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > If Kerry had been elected, it would have been a disaster on many levels. You’d have the VP forced to resign \ What would have caused Edwards to resign? He didn’t meet Rielle Hunter until she was hired by his 2008 presidential campaign in 2006. Had he been Vice President at the time, there’s no reason to think he would have even met her, much less had the ensuing affair and coverup. Certainly he seems to lack the sort of judgment that would guarantee a scandal-free stint in office, but you can’t really assert that he would have been forced to resign. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-you-think-obama-is-making-a-huge-mistake-in-pissing-off-all-the-wrong-people/658296/58 "2013-05-20T00:11:52Z")
> [@Cheryl44](#): > > Maybe all of these “scandals” are to keep us from noticing Congress has nothing better to do than to try to repeal the Affordable Care Act again. The whole point of a meaningless gesture is for people to notice it. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-you-think-obama-is-making-a-huge-mistake-in-pissing-off-all-the-wrong-people/658296/59 "2013-05-20T02:25:51Z")
Don’t you get those mailings they send, all about what they’ve accomplished? “No, I didn’t get you any money for your schools, or to keep your firefighters or fix your roads, but I was too busy protecting you from seeing a doctor. You’re welcome” ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-you-think-obama-is-making-a-huge-mistake-in-pissing-off-all-the-wrong-people/658296/60 "2013-05-20T02:42:48Z")
Heck, even if Edwards did have an affair in office, presidents have had affairs without resigning. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-you-think-obama-is-making-a-huge-mistake-in-pissing-off-all-the-wrong-people/658296.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-you-think-obama-is-making-a-huge-mistake-in-pissing-off-all-the-wrong-people/658296.md?page=4)