# Obama "Most Divisive" Figure in US Politics **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [May 20, 2012, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-most-divisive-figure-in-us-politics/622525 "2012-05-20T17:13:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-most-divisive-figure-in-us-politics/622525/101 "2012-06-01T14:11:56Z")
> [@BrainFireBob](#): > > Tell you what. When you get a Michael Moore delivering a Fahrenheit 911 on Obamacare or his handling of the economy, you can start discussing scale. When discussing vitriol, it’s not about the validity- it’s about the smear and tone. The reason _Fahrenheit 9/11_ was such a big hit (despite being a total mess of a movie, IMO) is that such a full-throated condemnation of Bush was pretty much absent from the mainstream at the time. It was a different story in the latter years of his second term, but between 9/11 and the fall of 2005 you had a hard time finding any true vitriol against Bush outside the lefty blogosphere. I’ve written about it before here, but two things in 2005 made it OK to hate on Bush in public: Cindy Sheehan’s campaign against the war and Hurricane Katrina. Consider Sheehan–she was just a mother of a fallen soldier who spoke out passionately against the war and Bush’s handling of it. The mainstream couldn’t dismiss her as a dirty unpatriotic hippie, which is pretty much what had happened to any anti-war voice up to that point. She shouldn’t have been such a big deal, but she was. (She also turned out to be pretty nutty, but you can’t deny the effect she had.) Also consider [moveon.org](http://moveon.org) and their infamous video contest. In 2004 they had invited users to submit videos to their web site, and out of thousands of entries, two of the videos compared Bush to Hitler. The videos were quickly taken down, but that didn’t keep the right from losing their shit about it. This was such an uncommon thing that it was big news for a while. You heard plenty of people saying mean things about Bush if you were really plugged into the blogs or to boards like this one. But you just can’t compare the vitriol that _the average person_ heard against Bush for most of his presidency to what he hears against Obama. ---
**Author:** ![JBGUSA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/258eb7/32.png) [@JBGUSA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JBGUSA)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2017, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-most-divisive-figure-in-us-politics/622525/102 "2017-06-09T02:56:19Z")
The childishness of Obama’s leftover employees saddens me. Also his last minute garbage in the U.N. was a disgrace. I had hoped to have better memories of the Obama years than is now warranted. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_jeffrey_lebowski/32/215_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Jeffrey_Lebowski)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2017, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-most-divisive-figure-in-us-politics/622525/103 "2017-06-09T03:29:27Z")
> [@JBGUSA](#): > > The childishness of Obama’s leftover employees saddens me. Who in particular? can you offer some examples? ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2017, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-most-divisive-figure-in-us-politics/622525/104 "2017-06-09T03:47:28Z")
Gosh, I wonder if, in the 5 years since this thread was started, there has maybe been some politician who has managed to edge out Barack Obama for that “most divisive” title. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2017, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-most-divisive-figure-in-us-politics/622525/105 "2017-06-09T05:21:50Z")
It sure ain’t Trump, because everybody hates Trump. ---
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2017, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-most-divisive-figure-in-us-politics/622525/106 "2017-06-09T07:11:03Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > It sure ain’t Trump, because everybody hates Trump. To borrow a line from GWB, Trump is a uniter, not a divider. We now know that there is more than one way to unite the country. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2017, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-most-divisive-figure-in-us-politics/622525/107 "2017-06-09T11:51:47Z")
> [@JBGUSA](#): > > The childishness of Obama’s leftover employees saddens me. Also his last minute garbage in the U.N. was a disgrace. > > I had hoped to have better memories of the Obama years than is now warranted. Yes, anything bad that happens now, even if Trump was directly involved, is Obama’s fault. ---
**Author:** ![Bone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bone/32/407_2.png) [@Bone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bone)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2017, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-most-divisive-figure-in-us-politics/622525/108 "2017-06-09T13:27:09Z")
> [@JBGUSA](#): > > The childishness of Obama’s leftover employees saddens me. Also his last minute garbage in the U.N. was a disgrace. > > I had hoped to have better memories of the Obama years than is now warranted. I’m not sure why you ressurected this thread, but I have my guesses. I recommend you focus on more substantive posting activity to assuage those suspicions. Thread closed. [/moderating] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-most-divisive-figure-in-us-politics/622525.md?page=5)