PrintOctober 8, 2010
Obama promises 'hand to hand combat' if GOP wins
After hearing VP Biden discuss strangling Republicans, Barack Obama promises hand to hand combat if Republicans win big in November. From the Los Angeles Times:
A Republican majority in Congress would mean "hand-to-hand combat" on Capitol Hill for the next two years, threatening policies Democrats have enacted to stabilize the economy, President Obama warned Wednesday.Speaking on Michael Baisden's syndicated radio show, Obama also made a direct appeal to African Americans about the importance of the November vote, even though he's not on the ballot himself."The reason we won [in 2008] is because young people, African Americans, Latinos -- people who traditionally don't vote in high numbers -- voted in record numbers. We've got to have that same kind of turnout in this election," he said. "If we think that we can just vote one time, then we have a nice party at Obama's inauguration, and then we can kind of sit back and suddenly everything's going to change - that's just not how it works."
Why does Barack Obama so often lapse into imagery of violence when describing opponents? During the campaign he boasted that if his opponents "bring a knife to a fight, we bring a gun." Later on, when he began to feel the heat, he talked about the need (for others, apparently) to practice civility in politics and suggested we all tone down the rhetoric.
If only he would apply the same type of emotions when dealing with our enemies. He saves his venom for political opponents of his; not for America's adversaries.
Furthermore, what happened to his 2004 call for an America that was not split into a white America or black America or Latino America. Now, he again makes a blatant appeal focused on identity politics.
Shelagh Gray adds:
Surely my jaw can't drop any further from things this president says and does. Yet somehow, he still manages to deliver what seems to be a daily dose of shock and awe. Should the GOP retake the House and Senate as a result of the November midterms, an article yesterday in the latimes.com quotes our president as saying "...we are going to have just hand-to-hand combat up here on Capitol Hill." What? The continuing undignified and un-presidential phraseology aside, the comment is a profound demonstration of Mr. Obama's unwillingness to accept the will of the people. Of course we should expect any president to continue to try to advance his agenda, and this president was elected by a large majority, but if Republicans do indeed retake Congress in the midterms, it will be because the voters ... Republicans, Independents, and probably a few newly-awakened Democrats have decreed it. Thus, the president would be wise to take heed. If "hand-to-hand combat" breaks out on Capitol Hill, in short, if the president refuses to moderate his agenda and the Republicans have to constantly fight the president to enact the will of the voters, Mr. Obama is quite mistaken if he thinks he will be at war with a Republican Congress. Oh, no, Mr. Obama will in fact be at war with the American people.
