Obama serving as divider in chief

By CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER   Friday, May 4, 2012
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“The pundits like to slice and dice our country into red states and blue states…”

—Barack Obama, rising star, Democratic convention, 2004

Poor Solicitor General Donald Verrilli. Once again he’s been pilloried for fumbling a historic Supreme Court case. First shredded for his “train wreck” defense of Obamacare’s individual mandate, he is now blamed for the defenestration in oral argument of Obama’s challenge to the Arizona immigration law.

The law allows police to check the immigration status of someone stopped for other reasons. Verrilli claimed that constitutes an intrusion on the federal monopoly on immigration enforcement. He was pummeled. Why shouldn’t a state help the federal government enforce the law?

“You can see it’s not selling very well,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor said.

But Verrilli never had a chance. This was never a serious legal challenge in the first place. It was confected (and timed) purely for political effect, to highlight immigration as a campaign issue with which to portray Republicans as anti-Hispanic.

Hispanics are just the beginning, however. The entire Obama campaign is a slice-and-dice operation, pandering to one group after another, particularly those that elected Obama in 2008—blacks, Hispanics, women, young people—and for whom the thrill is now gone.

What to do? Try fear. Create division, stir resentment, by whatever means necessary—bogus court challenges, dead-end Senate bills and a forest of straw men.

Why else would the Justice Department challenge the photo ID law in Texas? To charge Republicans with seeking to disenfranchise Hispanics and blacks, of course. But in 2008 the Supreme Court upheld a similar law from Indiana. And it wasn’t close: 6-3, the majority including that venerated liberal, John Paul Stevens.

Moreover, photo IDs were recommended by the 2005 Commission on Federal Election Reform, co-chaired by Jimmy Carter. And you surely can’t get into the attorney general’s building without one. Are Stevens, Carter and Eric Holder anti-Hispanic and anti-black?

The ethnic bases covered, we proceed to the “war on women.” It sprang to public notice when a 30-year-old student at an elite law school (starting private-sector salary upon graduation: $160,000) was denied the inalienable right to have the rest of the citizenry (as co-insured and/or taxpayers—median household income: $52,000) pay for her contraception.

Despite a temporary setback—Hilary Rosen’s hastily surrendered war on moms—Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will resume the battle with a Paycheck Fairness Act that practically encourages frivolous lawsuits and has zero chance of passage.

No matter. Its sole purpose is to keep the war-on-women theme going, while the equally just-for-show Buffett Rule, nicely pitting the 99 percent versus the 1 percent, is a clever bit of class warfare designed to let Democrats play tribune of the middle class.

Ethnicity, race, gender, class. One more box to check: the young. Just four years ago, they swooned in the aisles for Obama. No longer. Not when 54 percent of college graduates younger than 25 are unemployed or underemployed.

How to shake them from their lethargy? Fear again. Tell them, as Obama repeatedly does, that Paul Ryan’s budget would cut Pell Grants by $1,000 each, if his domestic cuts were evenly distributed. (They are not evenly distributed, making the charge a fabrication. But a great applause line.)

Then warn that Republicans would double the interest rate on student loans. Well, first, Mitt Romney has said he would keep them right where they are. Second, as The Washington Post points out, this is nothing but a recycled campaign gimmick from 2006 when Democrats advocated (and later passed) a 50 percent rate cut that gratuitously squanders student aid by subsidizing the wealthy as well as the needy.

For Obama, what’s not to like? More beneficiaries, more votes.

What else to run on with 1.7 percent GDP growth (2011), record long-term joblessness and record 8 percent-plus unemployment (38 consecutive months, as of this writing). Slice and dice, group against group.

There is a problem, however. It makes a mockery of Obama’s pose as the great transcender, uniter, healer of divisions. This is the man who sprang from nowhere with that thrilling 2004 convention speech declaring that there is “not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there’s the United States of America.”

That was then. Today, we are just sects with quarrels—to be exploited for political advantage. And Obama is just the man to fulfill Al Gore’s famous mistranslation of our national motto: Out of one, many.

Charles Krauthammer is a columnist for the Washington Post. His email address is letters@charleskrauthammer.com.

reader COMMENTS
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(49)
onedayatatime
May 6, 2012 at 4:13 p.m.
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Geez wislady. You should move to Afghanistan, they haven't moved forward in the last two centuries. You'd fit right in there.

wislady
May 6, 2012 at 1:50 p.m.
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And the priceless story of the campaign stop with Obama in Milwaukee, the backdrop of the American Flag and a Union Flag.....

Obama Visits WI and Flies the Union Flag, Er, Not Exactly

http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/02/1130...

wislady
May 6, 2012 at 1:44 p.m.
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Haha

Even Dougie LaFollette had to jump on the "Forward" motto with his little wind up mascot cow...."Miss Forward". (Now that might be the first "shovel ready" job the dems create...faux cowpies).

And lest we forget....MSNBC and "Lean Forward." By the way, what happened to KDoberman?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39310817/

wislady
May 6, 2012 at 12:39 p.m.
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FORWARD over the cliff.

Leave it to liberals to take a motto established in 1851 as Wisconsin's motto..........Forward, and
FUNDAMENTALLY TRANSFORMING what it stood for, just to suit the liberal agenda. They do that a lot. When they got tired of being called liberals, they changed their name to progressive.

Didn't the FISTERS even have a "Forward Wisconsin Fest" last year?

All the paid highly paid campaign workers and they had to copy a Wisconsin motto because they couldn't come up with an original idea.

WalterReuther
May 6, 2012 at 12:04 p.m.
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The word "Forward" is featured prominently on the WI state flag. Get out while you still can Republicans. With that kind of propaganda on the state flag, WI is obviously a socialist state.

wislady
May 6, 2012 at 9:15 a.m.
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"Forward"....not.

http://youtu.be/f_e-CiZ2YNw

4bears
May 6, 2012 at 12:19 a.m.
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oh che, you want to talk about ruthless dividers? you don't even have to leave the state! crooked politician? LOL, stay home again.

wislady
May 5, 2012 at 6:58 p.m.
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From BHO's website.............

The Life of Julia

"Take a look at how President Obama's policies help one woman over her lifetime—and how Mitt Romney would change her story."

http://www.barackobama.com/life-of-julia...

What's Hidden in Obama's 'Julia' Campaign

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/mary...

People, don't let your daughters grow up to be Julia!

"House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Friday that the Obama campaign's new website — which uses a fictionalized woman named Julia to illustrate how the president's policies help female voters — is "creepy" and "demeaning."

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-r...

whz_bng
May 5, 2012 at 6:48 p.m.
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Obamas only Job before politics was passing out leaflets in Chicago. Great resume for a president. He failed on the job training 101. Like the man said "there is a term for this president, but not two".

onedayatatime
May 5, 2012 at 11:10 a.m.
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People need to stop listening to the "talking heads" spin on everything and get off their$$es and inform themselves by actually using legitimate sources of information. I don't hold out much hope for that because the biggest percentage of Americans are apathetic and lazy and want others to tell them what to think.
Analytical and critical thinking in the US diminishes every year.
An expected voter turnout of 30 to 35% is is reprehensible and we should be ashamed. People in other countries are dying to get what we have and yet we here in the US take for granted what we have and make no effort to preserve it. This is why the nation is failing.

onedayatatime
May 5, 2012 at 11 a.m.
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IMO I don't believe it is President Obama dividing the country. This divisiveness began with the advent of 24 hour "News". Before the likes of Fox News, MSNBC, Rachael Maddow, Keith Olberman, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Glen Beck, we never had this problem in this country. These are the true dividers

RetiredAirForce
May 5, 2012 at 10 a.m.
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The mantra over koch is getting old. All the while ignoring the same rhing happening in the dem party....

RetiredAirForce
May 5, 2012 at 9:58 a.m.
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Giving workers a choice is an attack?

usaret
May 5, 2012 at 9:43 a.m.
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why-think: You say the Rep's want a one party system so what does the Dem party want? Sounds, looks like, reads like they to want a ONE PARTY system: Theirs. Whats your take on George Soros?

why_think
May 5, 2012 at 8:27 a.m.
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Who's playbook? That is a debate.
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Look back at what GW and Rove did to John McCain in 2000. That was the most disgusting, race-baiting primary campaign ever.
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RAF, Walker attacked worker rights for political gain. Nothing else. The Koch Bros. know that if the unions are weak the financial backing of the dems are weak. They want a one-party system.
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If it was all about the budget Walker would have simply taken the $$ and left collective bargaining ALONE!

kaysbrew
May 5, 2012 at 7:11 a.m.
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Well he's always been a divider but the class warfare is all he's got left. Race, religion, gender warfare. It's been in the liberal playbook for years when they don't have anything else. President Divider.

RetiredAirForce
May 5, 2012 at 1:23 a.m.
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Oh, here is some more "cutting taxes for the "job creators". This has been their mantra for more than a decade"
-
Facts are a tough thing. All people who paid federal income tax had their taxes cut during the last decade. So I guess everyone is rich and job creators?

RetiredAirForce
May 5, 2012 at 1:20 a.m.
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Just pointing out more left wing lies---"It was WALKER that attacked worker rights."

RetiredAirForce
May 5, 2012 at 1:16 a.m.
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Still using that oil based keyboard Red? Your choice of words is ironic, perhaps a bit of projection.

frontrank1861
May 4, 2012 at 9:06 p.m.
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Is Obama now a Republican? Krauthammer attributes Republican stategies and campaign rhetoric and passes it off as Obama as Divider-in-chief. The right has been dividing the country for over a decade. They don't proffer any programs of their own except to pass the burden onto a shrinking middle class while cutting taxes for the "job creators". This has been their mantra for more than a decade and it still hasn't produced American jobs! Greed and selfishness is their god and they worship at the source of power and money.

4bears
May 4, 2012 at 7:13 p.m.
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hey vatoloco, I can do that if stop listening to Rush, Fox and the talking heads to prove the same? Original thought is a good thing.....

usaret
May 4, 2012 at 6:19 p.m.
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dustyd: Guess you could say the same about the Left-wingers as well.

dustyd
May 4, 2012 at 5:29 p.m.
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I suppose calling the President "anti-christ", "socialist", "nazi", "traitor", "non-American", etc., are the right-wing's way of promoting unity?

garyprimer
May 4, 2012 at 5:19 p.m.
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Don't worry,
Uncle Mitt will take care of everything.

wislady
May 4, 2012 at 5:18 p.m.
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FORWARD!… Obama to Officially Launch 2012 Campaign on Karl Marx’s Birthday

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/05/...

He is just starting????

poorrichard
May 4, 2012 at 3:13 p.m.
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NVgrf-You keep coming back don't you? I thought we were too stupid for you, oh well, maybe the next time you quit us you'll mean it.

why_think
May 4, 2012 at 2:49 p.m.
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I = It

why_think
May 4, 2012 at 2:49 p.m.
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usaret,
I was WALKER that attacked worker rights. Obama has been disapointedly quiet on the issue. He has done little for unions.
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As for the rest of your comments... "Obamacare" has death panels.
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It goes both ways...

usaret
May 4, 2012 at 1:24 p.m.
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From what I get out of Obama's speech's, I should hate the rich. Of course he's wants their money for his re-election compaign. According to the Left, I'm against the poor, the middle-class, the elderly and because I don't agree with Pres. Obama, I must be a racist. I'm a gun-toten, religious fanactic. But then I'm to believe that you all care for the poor and the middle-class and the rich have to pay more so you can have all the FREE stuff Obama PROMISED YOU! You all are loving of your follow man, except those on the Right. You believe in workers-rights as long as the worker belongs to a UNION which takes your dues and gives you pittance in return. You claim Obama hasn't divided the nation but he sure has done very little in the long run to UNITE IT.

justsomeguy
May 4, 2012 at 1:18 p.m.
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As usual the commenters get divisive over the details. But if you look at the core message of the article, it is indisputable that the Obama campaign is trying to lead our focus off of his record and onto flashpoints.

Now you can't write that in an op-ed without adding a counter argument? I read an article today about the Bears and they didn't even mention how awesome the Packers are! It's blasphemy, right why_think?

why_think
May 4, 2012 at 1:08 p.m.
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Notunbiased,
.
I searched for polls on this subject and found ONE. This makes your comment THE MOST DIVISIVE in this section.
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This might be too high level for you but...
"
As a master’s student of statistics at Oregon State University, Carolyn Webb’s Feb. 20 letter caused me to investigate her claim that Obama is the “most divisive President ever.” What I found is that she or her source got the information wrong.

Gallup’s poll (http://tinyurl.com/

6ohgr7y) measured the difference of the average approval ratings of Republicans and Democrats. This past year ranked as the fourth-most divisive year after George W. Bush’s fourth, fifth and sixth years. Not the most divisive ever.

Political differences get magnified in election years, so Gallup also compared the ratings in presidents’ third year in office. Obama’s third year indeed comes in as the most divisive, right above G.W. Bush’s and Bill Clinton’s third years.

The poll clearly states this polarization “may not be a reflection on Obama himself as much as on the current political environment,” contrary to Ms. Webb’s claim.

Obama is presiding over the most polarized third year ever, but any good statistics student will point out that correlation doesn’t imply causation. Obama could be divisive (a claim I disagree with) but it is possible that other items are influencing this polarization, such as Speaker Boehner’s rhetoric, biased news sources or even individuals that spread misinformation about polls.

Andrew Burkey, Corvallis"
.

NoLeftist
May 4, 2012 at 12:49 p.m.
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Every poll shows that Obama is the most divisive president. Ever. In history.

Well, at least he's accomplished that if nothing else.

NVgrf
May 4, 2012 at 12:34 p.m.
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What the Kraut doesn't seem to understand is that it is the American people who will ultimately decide the quality of the President's first term performance...not an over the hill windbag "journalist."

poobah
May 4, 2012 at 11:59 a.m.
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Krauthammer got one thing almost right, "Today, we are just sects with quarrels—to be exploited for political advantage."

Political advantage is not the end goal of the chicanery nurtured by economic elitists and their minions; political advantage is only a tactic used by economic elitists to enact legislation that allows them to realize their mission of redistributing the nation's wealth to themselves.

PanamaRed
May 4, 2012 at 11:40 a.m.
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You're a fool RAF, which explains your comments.

Pittuy
May 4, 2012 at 11:05 a.m.
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Obama going no where fast. If he would run on his record it would be a land slide defeat for him.

RetiredAirForce
May 4, 2012 at 10:55 a.m.
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"His blind partisanship", this explains why_think's comments too.

Hkwnd
May 4, 2012 at 10:44 a.m.
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Both sides distort the truth and divide the nation.It's called divide and conqure....and you're all getting fooled by it.

dado4
May 4, 2012 at 10:23 a.m.
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Well done why_think.

why_think
May 4, 2012 at 10:07 a.m.
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I could comment on other misleading, biased and hypocritical statements by Mr. K but it really isn’t worth my time. His blind partisanship with either be agreed with or disagreed with. The pundits have assured this country is divided. It isn’t Mitt Romney, President Obama that need to be blamed for the blindly partisanship taking place in Congress or the states. The pundits, everyone from Limbaugh and Hannity to Schultz and Maddow to Fox News and MSNBC to Media Matters and Daily Beast have assured that the “other side” is seen as the enemy and will destroy our world. They create the message, the discussion and the debate by choosing what to cover and how to present it. Mr. K’s rhetoric is more of a problem than this president, or any other president could ever be.

why_think
May 4, 2012 at 10:07 a.m.
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The problem, Mr. K, with your theory of President Obama being the divider is your very analysis is meant to divide the country.
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“Then warn that Republicans would double the interest rate on student loans. Well, first, Mitt Romney has said he would keep them right where they are.”
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LIE! Mit Romney supported Paul Ryan’s Budget plan. That plan INCLUDED doubling the interest rate on student loans. That is an undisputable FACT. Mr. K, to divide you LIE!
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“Why else would the Justice Department challenge the photo ID law in Texas? To charge Republicans with seeking to disenfranchise Hispanics and blacks, of course.”
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Perhaps the Justice Department doesn’t like the unnecessary laws writing by the Koch Brothers and “Alec”. Perhaps there is no legit reason for the REPUBLICANS to purpose these PARTISAN laws other than to reduce the number of young, old and poor from voting.
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“The ethnic bases covered, we proceed to the “war on women.” It sprang to public notice when a 30-year-old student at an elite law school (starting private-sector salary upon graduation: $160,000) was denied the inalienable right to have the rest of the citizenry (as co-insured and/or taxpayers—median household income: $52,000) pay for her contraception.”
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It sprang to public notice when a private citizen, a 30 year old student, was called every name in the book by the “face” of the Republican/Conservative party/movement, Rush Limbaugh. In addition, having contraception covered on health insurance plans should be an automatic. For many women, these medications do much more than prevent pregnancy. If vasectomies can be covered; why not the pill that includes multiple benefits.
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“What else to run on with 1.7 percent GDP growth (2011), record long-term joblessness and record 8 percent-plus unemployment (38 consecutive months, as of this writing). Slice and dice, group against group.”
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The most depressing part of Mr. K’s take on our country, our president and the political parties is his blatant hypocrisy. He fails to mention: death panels, Koch Brothers, Alec, “Mission Accomplished”, Bin Laden, Rush Limbaugh, DREAM Act, the dozens of bills passed without debate most other administrations now debated and voted down, the 24 months of job growth, the millions of jobs added since President Obama’s policies took effect, the depression, etc…
.

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