OK then, let’s get back to the OP, why, specifically, do the Republicans hate Obama? My feeling of it, and I have no proof, is that it truly is because he is black and has a D after his name. Or it could just be because all the lies and hatred spewed by right-wing radio pundits. Hell, I don’t know, but I just don’t see a reasonable reason for the level of vitriol.
With President Bush I could understand. Two wars (one of which had a very questionable justification), Patriot act and warrantless wiretapping, torturing of POWs, Guantanamo and the definition of illegal combatants, extraordinary rendition, ignoring the situation in Korea, ignoring the situation with the Palestinians and Israel, cutting taxes (mostly for the wealthy) while supporting increased spending on all fronts (domestic and foreign), the dismissal of science for political reasons (climate change, evolution and creationism, stem cells, NASA), the whole neo-conservative agenda with its nation building and democracy spreading (I believe in a Libertarian foreign policy stance), etc… President Bush was no where near the devil that many Liberals made him out to be, but he really sucked on a lot of levels. President Obama does not have near as many black marks on his record as President Bush, at least to my mainly (civil) Libertarian eye. Forcing people to pay for insurance does not bother me as I was already paying for their health care, it’s about time some of them carried the load. Also letting the government insure only the high risk pool (Medicare), while insurance companies get to cover everybody else is just lame. Well, maybe we can fix this later… I would also love to let companies off the hook with providing health care. It’s a stupid benefit for them to offer anyway and probably against their best interest. Meh, I’ll save it for a different thread.