Obama, once the uniter, now the partisan warrior
| FEATURE |
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WASHINGTON — Barack Obama, the unifying inspirational figure of 2008, has become, in 2010, an enthusiastic partisan warrior, lacerating Republicans as a new reckoning looms with angry voters.
President Obama’s toughened rhetoric reflects a transformed political environment since his historic election win two years ago, with a sour Washington era in prospect as Republicans expect a big win in midterm polls.
In 2008, Obama billed himself as the personification of hope and promised to soothe the ugly divides in Washington.
“The American people don’t want to hear politicians attack each other,” Obama told a crowd in St Louis on Oct. 18, 2008, two weeks before he was elected president.
“You want to hear about how we’re going to attack the challenges facing middle class families each and every day,” Obama said.
Back then, Obama repeatedly stressed the need to renew the faith of an electorate steeped in cynicism about politics.
“We have always been at our best when we’ve had leadership that called us to look past our differences and come together as one nation, as one people,” Obama said in South Carolina on Oct. 19, 2008, calling for a new politics.
But in 2010, two weeks before congressional elections, it is a caustic Obama who is doing the attacking.
“This election is not just about moving forward versus moving backwards,” Obama told a Democratic Party rally in Ohio last weekend..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20101023com3.html
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