I hadn’t really thought about it at the time, but Ann Althouse / James Taranto / Dana Milbank are all correct: the way that the GOP openly laughed at some of the more absurd things that President Obama said on Thursday was more insulting than Rep. Joe Wilson’s (perfectly-accurate) direct shout of “You lie!” at Obama’s 2009 attempt to justify his party’s disaster of a health care rationing system. As Milbank put it:
The lawmakers weren’t particularly hostile toward the president — they just regarded the increasingly unpopular Obama as irrelevant. And the inclination not to take the 43-percent president seriously wasn’t entirely limited to the Republicans.
Do tell. Do tell. But please remember: it is not the Republicans’ fault that the President is in this mess. In 2009 Barack Obama was handed a multitude of gifts by the American people: a unquestionable popular vote and an overwhelming Electoral College victory; powerful majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives; and favorable ratings from the American people rarely seen outside of wartime. All of this translated to a perfect storm of opportunity and power. And Barack Obama then proceeded to pi… err, throw… it all away on a stimulus that didn’t work, a cap-and-tax bill that didn’t pass, and a health care rationing system that everybody hates, and wants to die in a fire. And, oh yes, the Lily Ledbetter Act – you know, I still can’t even remember what that one does, and I must have looked it up a dozen times.
Obama’s earned this, is all that I’m saying.
Moe Lane (crosspost)