Keep Digging, Mr. President

Barack Obama just keeps digging himself and his party deeper into the political morass that American politics has become on his watch. For many Democrat candidates, the man has become downright toxic. It would be sad to watch if it were not so necessary to the preservation of the Republic.

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Presidential campaigning for congressional aspirants frequently is a boon for their candidacies, even during those crucial first off-year tests after a chief executive's inauguration. George W. Bush helped actually usher in a rare pickup of seats for his party two years after his first election — thanks primarily to his decisive response to the 9/11 attacks and his reasonably sane, first-term fiscal policies. Unfortunately, reckless federal spending and a brazen lack of border enforcement in his second term were the main reasons for massive GOP losses in 2006. The irony this year is that safe incumbents like Nancy Pelosi have no need of an Obama campaign stop in her district, while most of the rest of her cadre of House Dems don't want him in theirs. Even for those Democrats savvy enough to avoid Obama like the plague this year, there is but a slim chance of their reelection. For those foolish enough to invite him to come to their districts, unless they are in safe seats, like Pelosi, they will likely be joining the ranks of the unemployed — along with many of their constituents. Not since Bill Clinton have we seen a president so willing to besmirch the dignity his office. Say what you will about George Bush (and I have been among his harshest critics); he always held his office in high esteem. The Gipper wouldn't even remove his suit coat while in the Oval Office! Obama, on the other hand, is out on the campaign trail sounding like Clinton-era political hack James Carville. In fact, the Ragin' Cajon's infamous "It's the economy, stupid!" remark sounds downright Jeffersonian compared to some of the inane things Obama is spouting on the campaign trail. Things like, "They're countin' on black folks stayin' home from the polls!" Or "the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is a tool of big business and may be using illegal foreign money to influence this election." That Obama would resort to dealing the race card from the bottom of the deck, or that he would attack the private sector with baseless charges of campaign illegalities, is not surprising. That he would do so personally, as President of the United States, is a mud-rolling spectacle the likes of which we have never witnessed. But what did we expect when we elected such a man to the presidency? What else does he know how to do? He went from community organizer to state senator (voting "present") to U.S. senator plotting his rise to the White House. He has no other experience. In fact, he may be the first person in human history to write two best-selling autobiographies without ever accomplishing anything — other than writing two best-selling autobiographies. Barack Obama, like those who have helped form who he is — from his Communist father to his beatnik-hippie mother to his grandparents to his terrorist friend, Bill Ayers, to his domineering wife to his hateful, Black Liberation Theology-spouting preacher, Jeremiah Wright — is an agitator whose ideology compels him to demonize anyone who disagrees with him. As I wrote a few weeks ago, this election is not in the bag for the GOP. And even if it were, many of them are too willing to compromise with the Obama agenda. But one thing is certain: Barack Obama is a leftist trying to govern a center-right country, and he does not understand that he is digging a hole for himself and his party that may bury them for a good, long time. Keep digging, Mr. President.