“Playing with fire,” indeed

I’m pleasantly surprised to see someone in the MSM come right out and say that certain ultra-ultra right-wing talking points – like this Baptist minister who prays for Obama to die – could incite violence against him or others. Because it seems like our country has developed a serious case of short-term amnesia lately.

Fact: people were actually arrested for wearing critical T-shirts at Bush events only five years ago. Almost two thousand protesters were arrested at the 2004 Republican National Convention. People who went to Bush town hall events were pre-selected. And yet it’s okay to show up at an Obama appearance with an assault rifle?

Earlier this year (as alluded to in the clip), Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano came under fire for warning that the same climate that produced a surge of domestic terrorism in the 90s was developing at present. And yet – assassins target doctors and museums and ministers openly beg for the president’s death, and no one sees a connection. (I totally love the madrassa concept that the MSNBC contributor brought up.)

Can I ask something? I genuinely, non-snarkily want to know from anyone out there who’s gone tea-bagging or has said something along the lines of “I want my country back” – what has Obama done that scares you so much? (Please answer without referencing either birth certificates or the anti-Christ.)

I mean, we’ve still got “don’t ask/don’t tell” and the Defense of Marriage Act provisions. We’ve got pretty much the same restrictions on abortion. We’ve handed over power in Iraq, as Bush planned. We’ve actually sent more troops to Afghanistan to find the people who attacked us. The Bush tax cuts are still in place, and will expire no sooner than they were going to anyway. Obama continued the pattern of federal bail-out that Bush started. He even kept Bush’s Secretary of Defense and today nominated Bush’s Federal Reserve chair to another term. And the president has asked Congress to reform the health insurance system. Other than that last part, how exactly is America different than it was a year ago?

It’s really not. But we’re still getting the kind of distracting hysteria that stymied federal leadership during the 90s, when yet another conservative Democrat was in the White House. (And if you honestly think that Bill Clinton was a liberal, talk to a few of the thousands of people he booted off welfare or kicked out of the military because they liked boys.) Even though Obama: Month Eight doesn’t look that different from Bush: Year Eight, you’d think we were in the middle of Armageddon. Why? Because America’s memory sucks.

In the immortal words of Columbo, one more thing… Detroit came to Obama, not the other way around… the Nazis weren’t socialist… Health care rationing already exists… Nobody’s trying to take your guns… The next person who calls Obama a socialist can feel free to sign his or her Social Security check over to me… and, of course…

If something happens to Obama, you know what you get?

President Biden and Vice President Pelosi. Suck on that.