Obama's Hated Because He's Librul? Mr. Corn, That Is an...Arguable Statement!

Though I hate* to disagree with my distinguished colleague Mr. Corn of Takoma Park, I must voice my own view that if librul is as librul does, then our president is no such thing.

A few acknowledgements:

I don't much care if he is or he is not.

In part because I do not always find political labels all that helpful, given that many of us with thinking caps are neither ideologically rigid, nor immune to the usual inconsistencies.

Yet although I myself am way less reliably liberal than you are, David, even I would like to see him spine up on: Afghanistan, cap-and-trade, and yes, even now, the public option. (As the Washington Post noted, "on the controversial issue of a new government-run insurance option, he maintained his flexibility, saying, "If you come to me with a serious set of proposals, I will be there to listen.") Which to me, sounded a lot like: Public option! Or not...

Yes, he defended liberalism the other night in his health care reform speech before a joint session of Congress. But he also went on and on about tort reform, Medicare waste, fraud and abuse, and how important it is to keep from adding to the deficit. (Did I miss those days in lefty school?) He's (rightly, I think, as a political matter) opposed to investigating the Bush administration for possible war crimes, and has at best a go-slow approach on gay marriage, gays in the military, and closing Gitmo.

It's true that we all hear what we want to hear – unless you are a bad partisan like me, always looking for the bruise on the fruit. But is he really hated because he's a true blue liberal, or because he's been portrayed as far more ideological than he is by various political performance artists?

You only have to read the comments in response to any story about him to know that race plays a role, along with the kind of free-floating resentment that venting fuels rather than extinguishes. In fact, this venom is not rational enough to be in response to anything real; I do not give the Obama-haters that much credit.

* The new Wilsonians would have a big time with this LIE, since as my own mama has noted, I'd actually rather argue than eat.