{"id":1669,"date":"2011-10-29T17:43:06","date_gmt":"2011-10-29T17:43:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com.108-166-28-151.mdgnetworks.com\/wordpress\/?p=1669"},"modified":"2013-03-12T17:45:55","modified_gmt":"2013-03-12T17:45:55","slug":"obamas-target-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obamas-target-list\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama’s Target List"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n

National Review Online<\/em><\/p>\n

What with exhaustion, overexposure, and the temptation to comment on just about anything in the news, presidential candidates and presidents alike naturally often slip up. Given their hectic speaking schedules, they frequently mispronounce words (\u201cnucular,\u201d \u201ccorpse-man\u201d), engage in the trivial (inflating tires and tuning up cars in lieu of drilling for more oil), and simply get things wrong (57 states). \u201cBushism\u201d was coined about 2001 to refer to all the various ways that George W. Bush mangled the English language. There are, of course, just as many \u201cObamaisms,\u201d though they are rarely commensurately lampooned by the media.<\/p>\n

FDR unfairly and often demonized his political opponents. Truman could be coarsely blunt; Nixon far more so and in paranoid fashion. Jimmy Carter\u2019s beatific fa\u00e7ade seemed to hide all sorts of inner mean streaks. But what seems somewhat different from past presidential sermons, malapropisms, and flat-out wrong statements is the tendency of Barack Obama to lecture, talk down to, caricature, or even insult various people and groups \u2014 even as no other president in recent memory has reminded the nation so often of the need for civility, unity, and tolerance.<\/p>\n

After only one year plus of campaigning and three years of governance, there is already a sizable corpus of Obama\u2019s targets. The common theme is less ideology, politics, race, class, or gender than a sense that many groups and people simply don\u2019t measure up to Obama\u2019s high standards. Some are deemed lazy, stupid, greedy, fearful, or clinging; others are too affluent, of questionable ethics, and ill-informed and ill-intentioned \u2014 and thus are culpable for our current problems.<\/p>\n

Where did the president pick up this habit of hypercriticism and easy caricature? Who knows? Michelle Obama showed similar tendencies during the campaign, when she labeled the US a country that is \u201cjust downright mean,\u201d until recently not worthy of pride, and variously talked about unnamed persons who perennially \u201craise the bar\u201d on those struggling to get ahead.<\/p>\n

Yet lecturing, demonizing, and caricaturing are not just symptoms of narcissism or being socially dense, but are also a revelation that Obama feels that he can say almost anything he wants, with the expectation \u2014 always borne out in the past \u2014 of few consequences. Still, his handlers worry about this habit, which explains both the serial use of teleprompted scripts even for the briefest of commentary and the almost lightning response from the White House, either that the latest target had it coming, or that the president\u2019s critics themselves were suspect in noticing such insults, or that the remarks were meant only in jest. Note as well that while almost everyone else is culpable, the president himself rarely is \u2014 at least not as much as ATM machines, George W. Bush, tsunamis, the European Union, the nine-month-old Republican-controlled House, the Arab Spring, and skyrocketing oil prices. Others err; but the president has made all \u201cthe right choices.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here is a tiny sampling of those who have been on the receiving end of the president\u2019s disdain:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. African Americans: \u201cTake off your bedroom slippers. Put on your marching shoes. Shake it off. Stop complainin\u2019. Stop grumblin\u2019. Stop cryin\u2019.\u201d<\/li>\n
  2. Americans: Are \u201cnot a model for the world\u201d and have a \u201ctragic history.\u201d Also, \u201cwe\u2019re hardwired not to always think clearly when we\u2019re scared,\u201d and, more recently, we have gotten \u201ca little soft\u201d and lost our \u201ccompetitive edge.\u201d<\/li>\n
  3. Bankers: \u201cFat cats\u201d<\/li>\n
  4. Border enforcement: Its overzealous adherents want \u201calligators and moats\u201d on the border and would arrest children on their way to get ice cream.<\/li>\n
  5. The Cambridge, Mass., police: \u201cActed stupidly\u201d and, like law-enforcement officers in general, racially profile<\/li>\n
  6. Corporate-jet owners: \u201cAre you willing to compromise your kids\u2019 safety so some corporate-jet owner can get a tax break?\u201d<\/li>\n
  7. Democratic base: Must \u201cshake off this lethargy. People need to buck up\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0if people now want to take their ball and go home, that tells me folks weren\u2019t serious in the first place.\u201d<\/li>\n
  8. Doctors: Needlessly chop off the limbs of diabetics and take out tonsils to increase their own profits<\/li>\n
  9. Donald Trump: A \u201ccarnival barker\u201d<\/li>\n
  10. Grandmother: \u201cTypical white person\u201d<\/li>\n
  11. Las Vegas: Where you are likely to \u201cblow a bunch of cash when you\u2019re trying to save for college\u201d<\/li>\n
  12. Millionaires: They don\u2019t pay their \u201cfair share\u201d and are synonymous with those who have 1,000 times more.<\/li>\n
  13. Nancy Reagan: Don\u2019t \u201cget into a Nancy Reagan thing about, you know, doing any s\u00e9ances.\u201d<\/li>\n
  14. Rural Pennsylvanians: \u201cThey get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren\u2019t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment.\u201d<\/li>\n
  15. Sarah Palin: \u201cYou can put lipstick on a pig. It\u2019s still a pig.\u201d<\/li>\n
  16. Special Olympics: Comparable to the president\u2019s dismal bowling scores<\/li>\n
  17. Super Bowl: Where you go \u201con the taxpayer\u2019s dime\u201d<\/li>\n
  18. Supreme Court: Would \u201copen the floodgates for special interests\u201d<\/li>\n
  19. Supreme Court Justice Thomas: \u201cI would not have nominated Clarence Thomas. I don\u2019t think that he, I don\u2019t think that he was a strong enough jurist or legal thinker at the time for that elevation.\u201d<\/li>\n
  20. Tea Party: \u201cThe teabag, anti-government people\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The target list grows weekly. By the end of 2012, those on it may outnumber those not.<\/p>\n

    \n

    \u00a92011 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online What with exhaustion, overexposure, and the temptation to comment on just about anything in the news, presidential candidates and presidents alike naturally often slip up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[536],"tags":[12,105,465,389,460,5,205],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-qV","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12344,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/victor-davis-hanson-biden-vp-selection-echoes-decision-democrats-and-fdr-made-in-1944\/","url_meta":{"origin":1669,"position":0},"title":"Victor Davis Hanson: Biden VP selection echoes decision Democrats and FDR made in 1944","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 4, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ Fox News Few Americans can remember past vice presidents such as Charles Curtis, Charles Dawes or Thomas Marshall. In more recent memory, almost no one can recall vice\u00a0presidential\u00a0nominees who lost such as William Miller, Sargent Shriver or Lloyd Bentsen. John Nance Garner served as\u00a0Franklin D. Roosevelt\u2019s\u00a0vice\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10885,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/this-is-cnn-in-1945\/","url_meta":{"origin":1669,"position":1},"title":"This is CNN . . . in 1945","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 16, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"By Victor Davis Hanson| January 15, 2018 American Greatness What if something like CNN and modern communications were around in early 1945? What if the rules of presidential news coverage were then as they are now? 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Victor Davis Hanson\u2019s new book is \u201cThe Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won.\u201d Jay asks him a slew of questions, including: What caused the war?\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12140,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-new-post-trump-constitution\/","url_meta":{"origin":1669,"position":3},"title":"The New Post-Trump Constitution","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 16, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review The Left sees Donald Trump\u2019s comportment, rallies, and tweets as a new low in presidential behavior that justifies extraordinary countermeasures. But Trump\u2019s personal characteristics are idiosyncratic and may or may not become institutionalized by subsequent presidents. And it is not as if liberal icons\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10974,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/02-14-2018-angry-reader\/","url_meta":{"origin":1669,"position":4},"title":"02\/14\/2018 Angry Reader","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 14, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"From An Angry Reader From SM: Your article sucks. What if CNN didn\u2019t hate FDR? You can\u2019t debate a hypothetical situation. Trump is probably going to prison. Have fun. _________________________________________________________ Dear Angry Reader SM, 1) Define \u201csucks.\u201d 2) It is called counter-factual history and offers food, however unwished, for thought.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11267,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/historys-bad-ideas-are-an-inspiration-for-progressives\/","url_meta":{"origin":1669,"position":5},"title":"History\u2019s Bad Ideas Are an Inspiration for Progressives","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 6, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ American Greatness What we now consider stupid and dangerous ideas of the past, progressives see as useful in the present. Even liberal historians usually label as disastrous two decisions by the Franklin D. Roosevelt Administration: the adoption of the Earl Warren-McClatchy newspaper inspired plan to intern\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Progressivism"","block_context":{"text":"Progressivism","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/progressivism\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1669"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1669"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1670,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1669\/revisions\/1670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}