Opinion

Why do Democrats still like Obama?

Burt Prelutsky Contributor
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While I certainly understand why we conservatives regard the current administration as a plague of biblical proportions, I don’t know why liberals continue to adore Mr. Obama. I mean, even if you were a Democrat who believed that anyone would be better than John McCain, in much the same way that many of us felt George W. Bush was preferable to Gore and Kerry, I can’t fathom why so many Democrats continue to hold Obama in such high regard.

After all, Obamacare isn’t just bad for Republicans; it’s bad for everyone. Costs and constitutional concerns aside, when the inevitable shortage of doctors occurs, it’s not just conservatives who will be waiting weeks or months for an appointment.

If I had been silly enough to have voted for Obama in 2008, wouldn’t you expect me to be heartbroken that after all this time Gitmo is still open, jihadists will be tried by military tribunals and we have troops not only in Iraq and Afghanistan but also in Libya?

As a Jewish Democrat, wouldn’t I be offended that Obama has sided with the so-called Palestinians on so many occasions?

As an Hispanic Democrat, wouldn’t I be offended that after giving two-thirds of our votes to a pro-choice liberal, the only thing he’s done to show his appreciation is deliver a stupid, self-serving, patronizing speech involving moats and alligators in El Paso, Texas?

As an unemployed or underemployed Democrat, wouldn’t my nose be out of joint if, after squandering a trillion tax dollars on a stimulus plan he guaranteed would lower the unemployment rate to under 7%, it remained at 9% two-and-a-half years later?

As a Democrat in South Carolina or, for that matter, any other right-to-work state, why would I even consider voting for a guy whose hand-picked NLRB is trying to keep Boeing from building a plant in my state because Washington State’s labor bosses don’t want Boeing to serve as an example for other major companies?  Because unions only care about dues and their own power, not about what’s good for America, they would rather see Boeing open a plant a few miles north in Canada than provide jobs for Americans in Carolina. As for Boeing, I find it amazing they’ve stuck around this long when you realize that four strikes in the recent past have already cost the company nearly $2 billion in lost revenue.

As a Democrat in Alaska, West Virginia or one of the Gulf Coast states, why would I ever vote for a man who declared war on the coal and oil industries even before he moved into the Oval Office, and then carried through on his threats, thus costing me employment and continuing our dependence on foreign, generally anti-American, energy producers?

Why, as a business owner, would I vote for a guy or a party that wants to raise my taxes, in part to pay the salaries of federal employees, the only segment of the American workforce that’s continued growing — 11,000 new jobs in the first quarter of 2011 — in the years since Obama was elected?

As a colorblind Democrat who was promised a post-racial presidency, why would I support Obama and Eric Holder, who have done their best to mimic such race-baiters as Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson?

Why, as a democracy-loving Democrat who was promised transparency but instead wound up with the most secretive and paranoid administration since Richard Nixon’s, would I even consider voting for Obama?

So it is that even though the MSM, a.k.a. Obama’s propaganda machine, tries to portray him as invincible in 2012, I think they’re whistling past the graveyard. What far too many people have too quickly forgotten is that even before the midterm elections, Republicans, who were essentially running against the president, won major elections in Virginia, New Jersey and even Massachusetts. Then, for good measure, the GOP picked up 63 seats in the House and six in the Senate, delivering what even the president referred to as a shellacking.

On top of all that, in 2008, with Bush’s popularity plummeting like a rock, Obama still managed to trail John McCain, a white-haired version of Michael Dukakis, just six weeks before the election, which was when the economy tanked, thus handing victory to the ex-community organizer.

When you realize that the deficit is already $4 trillion larger, that the unemployment rate is much worse and that food and gasoline prices are between 25% and 70% higher than they were when George and Laura vacated the premises, I’d say that in the survival sweepstakes, the snowball in Hell has a better shot than Barack Obama.

Burt Prelutsky is a humor columnist, a movie critic and a writer for TV. He’s written episodes of MASH, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show, Family Ties, Dr. Quinn and Diagnosis Murder. He blogs at BurtPrelutsky.com.