In Texas, the crazies are the mainstream.
The point of my response is that it is a purely biased OP devoid of any perspective. It happens to every President elected - hero worship and anger goes with the territory. Taken to extreme, both are truly nutty. So what? Apparently, some people here don’t recognize the fact that it happens to every President, choosing instead to believe that their hero is being singularly persecuted and seeing every criticism as pure hate-filled nuttiness. Good luck with that. 
I’m sure that’s why he’s gotten more death threats than any president ever has at this point in their tenure.
That’s a standard right wing excuse for all sorts of things. “Oh, the parties are just the same, you are just working yourself up over nothing unusual”, and so on. Well, you’re wrong for the reasons various people have pointed out in this thread. The right wing reaction to Obama and the left wing to Bush are not the same, nor are the contexts of those reactions.
Thanks for sparing me the effort.
Anduril, you need to read the thread, not just my reply to you.
Good point. I am very disgusted with what passes for journalism these days.
Is there anything in the right compared to the irrational adulation of Obama? Have you heard anyone on Fox mention how Obama made them feel a thrill up their leg? For better or for worse, Obama brings out the nuttiness from both camps.
The notion that the left “irrationally adulates” Barack Obama is, much like the “The War On Christmas,” and “The Liberal Media,” entirely a right wing media phantasm.
Having said that, have you seen the movie, Jesus Camp? They’ve got a church making kids literally pray to a cardboard cutout of GWB in that movie. That kind of fusion of politics with religious mania does not exist on the US political left.
The infamous “Mission Accomplished” photo op caused quite a few media personalities to cream their jeans. And not only the Far Righties.
Read the whole article & try not to vomit.
The fact that there’s been a heavy amount of criticism of Obama, right out of the gate, from the high-profile left refutes any universal meme you may be suggesting. There are, of course, Obama fans in the media.
But for years, Bush did any number of things that were counter to conservative principles, and you’d be hard pressed to find anyone at Fox or the National Review on the level of an Olbermann or a Greenwald that wasn’t polishing his knob at every opportunity (and with the recent torture memo releases, they’re still kneeling at W’s 9/11 altar). Now that is irrational.
As another counterpoint to “The Left worships Obama”, there is a serious disillusion with Obama from the far Left, because he’s not doing the things they think he should be doing. I’d say that about 1/4 of Daily Kos diaries are critical of Obama, not adulatory. He’s basically taken torture prosecutions off the table, he hasn’t even attempted to make single-payer the major health care item, he’s continuing, in some cases, the Bush administration’s executive privilege actions, he blocked the ouster of Joe Lieberman from the caucus, his Treasury and Fed picks are NOT approved of, and his handling of the bailouts under those picks’ influence is not liked.
The idea that the Left “worships Obama” is silly.
Dio, obviously this sort of thing happens to at least some degree - this video was much discussed last year. So for you to say this doesn’t exist on the left but is prevalent ont he right - well, that’s absurd. The Jesus camp is a fringe religious organization, and this video struck most Obama voters as creepy - that doesn’t mean that this sort of phenomena can kick in both places.
And I’m not even making any kind of equivalence here - I have no basis for that right now. I’m just calling you on your assertion that this never happens or that it is entirely a right wing construct. That has no basis in reality and you should either retract it or try to prove it. I don’t think you can.
Still, there were some proportion of Obama voters who were overenthusiastic about him - especially in the runup to the election. Whether you would characterize them as left or far left frankly is immaterial - the fact is there was some amount of hero-worship going on.
Agree? Surely all that memorabilia was being bought by somebody, right?
Did you miss Rich Lowry saying that when Palin winked, starbursts went off and he was aroused?
Why wouldn’t a Democrat be able to ride on an airplane? Bush wasn’t piloting the thing, he was just a passenger. A fucking BABY could have sat in the passenger seat of that plane. A basket of laundry could have done it. Why do right wingers say such manifestly stupid shit like that? Do they actually believe it?
I guess they do. They convinced themselves that Obama would never be able to handle a few pirates in a lifeboat because no Democrat would EVER give approval to military action. I guess they really do believe that asserting a thing as true makes it true. Their constant state of cognitive dissonance must be suffocating.
Is that the best you can do? Show some overly idealistic children singing about hope and change? That’s your idea of “creepy.”
I stand by exactly what I said. I’m not going to play along with absolutist games about it. You can find exceptions to anything, but the allegation that “the left” (as a whole or as a meaningful percentage of the whole) sees Barack Obama as a supernatural “savior” figure or irrationally “adulates” him is nothing but talk radio moonshine, distilled from a metric ton of sour grapes.
Incidentally, to hear conservatives tell it, Ronald Reagan was a figure of perfect character and integrity without human flaw. The left has a long way to go to create the kind of myth you guys have built around a senile actor who traded arms to the enemy, built the Taliban and quadrupled the National Debt.
Everyone loves the new car until they actually bring it home. Comparing the way that people reacted to him in the election campaign and the way people react to him now is apples and oranges. My personal take on it is that he’s doing pretty much what he said he was going to do and those people just weren’t listening. As a fairly centrist liberal, I can definitely say that I haven’t been terribly disappointed in him on most things, but then I was actually paying attention during the campaign.
But you cannot really say now that there’s Obama-worship in any kind of degree that there was (and still is) Bush worship on the Right. When Obama actually orders torture, illegal wiretapping, the agressive invasion of a sovereign nation that hasn’t attacked us or harbored those attackers, or the blackmail of a Congressperson and the Left, including the so-called “liberal media”, licks his shoes, then you can say that there’s Obama-worship.
Then maybe you shouldn’t make absolute statements then.
Way to not answer the question.
I’ll take someone who attempts to inspire hope than those who truck in hatred and paranoia any day. That said, I don’t see irrational adulation of Obama. He’s well-liked by those who are inclined to like him, but I’m not clear why that would be considered irrational. Most people I meet who voted for Obama are actually cautiously optimistic rather than fawning in any sense.
I guess you’d consider me a nut because I’m willing to give Obama a chance and don’t expect him to solve the worlds problems in 3 months on the job.
Well, you’ve got so many trap doors in your statement, its hardly even a statement, more like Rorshach test. All you need prove is that there are “some” lefties over-enthused about Obama, hell, two and you win your point!
But that is in support of your implication, that there is an equivalence. Your statement may be correct, but if it doesn’t actually support much of anything, why bother?
I mean, by that reasoning, we could have thousands of rightards in the street, shrieking and tearing thier hair over their hatred for Obama, you say, “Well, some lefties like him too much” and voila! Equivalence! Why, they’re just exactly the same!