Although he doesn’t reference Saul Alinsky the Associated Press’s Jim Kuhhenn does notice a nasty turn in President Obama’s rhetoric:

With a tone of outrage and eye-rolling dismissiveness, President Barack Obama and his White House team are working out their aggressions on Republicans. Well into the final quarter of Obama's presidency the White House approach is, if you can't join 'em, beat 'em.

Even with a whiff of bipartisanship in the air, the president is going on offense and building on a strategy employed since Democrats lost control of the Senate. Disagree with a Republican? The White House approach is to single a lawmaker out, pick a fight and don't mince words.

Rule 12 from Rules for Radicals:

“Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions

For the Mainstream Media, any notice of Barack Obama’s radical roots is out if bounds, so I suppose that we should be grateful that the AP even notices nastiness as a political strategy of the White House.

This is a White House unleashed, forgoing niceties for the kind of blunt talk some of Obama's allies have been demanding for some time. But the rhetoric carries risks of sounding peevish and signals that a president who once ran on the promise of changing the tone in Washington has fully embraced its political combat.

Obama is not a nice man, he is full of anger and resentment. He has been packaged, building upon his radiant smile, as a healer, someone who would bring us together. His essence is the opposite.

Hat tip: Ed Lasky