Okay, I have to admit that it's been hard on me too that Obama has let the Repubs, Fox News, and the Tea Party rabble take control of the narrative on all the issues that matter....Health care, stimulus, energy policy--the list goes on. This feeling of political nausea is familiar to me. It is not unlike the way I felt during the primaries when Obama sat back and let the Clinton campaign pepper the airwaves with falsehoods, lies, and red herrings as their campaign went nuclear, playing fast and loose with the truth. In the end his method of giving the opposition so much rope that they hung themselves proved to be correct. By not fighting back, and letting the other side erode your poll numbers through negativity, the other side gets wilder and wilder in their distortions and blatantly false accusations. So much so that in the end it is they themselves who lose credibility. Just in time for the electorate to cast their ballots.
I know it is hard to watch Repubs who bloated the deficit by treating the budget as a giant pig trough for their corporate supporters to shamelessly feed at, suddenly recast themselves as the party of fiscal conservatives. Particularly now that their tax dollars are finally being spent for the public benefit. But their hypocrisy is getting to the point of blatant absurdity.
Obama's seeming passivity, coupled with his lowered approval ratings, have galvanized the opposition to outrageously vote against legislation that they themselves had previously not only promoted, but in many cases authored or sponsored when they were in the majority. Had there been a pugnacious Obama Truth Squad that called them out every time they "waffled" (Remember that favorite Repub epithet hurled so successfully against Dems in the not-so-distant past?) then they would have likely remained far more circumspect and cautious in their public pronouncements and actions.
What they are doing with their flagrant hypocrisy--so easily documented by the likes of Rachel Maddow (Go Grlll!) is set themselves up to LOSE BIG in November. Yes, you heard me....LOSE BIG! It won't take brilliant Rovian strategists to ply the election airwaves with clips of Repubs saying one thing while in the majority, then taking the opposite stance now. Their lack of concern for the truth, integrity, and authenticity will lay them low. Mark my words, the electorate hates hypocrisy and punishes those who put politics over public service.