"A peculiar, but unmistakable phenomenon..."

The New York Times's Sunday editorial expresses what reasonable people have known all along: The GOP's "...peculiar, but unmistakable phenomenon:  As Barack Obama's presidency heads into its twilight, the rage of the Republican establishment toward him is growing louder, angrier, and more destructive."

As an example of this destructive rage, the Times points out that even before Mr. Obama was inaugurated, the loud mouthed jackals of the GOP proclaimed to the media that they hoped he would fail.  The reigning bigots of the GOP allowed questions about Mr. Obama's citizenship and his religion to be taken seriously to the point where even members of Congress joined in on the attacks.  The most recent example (the ones in the past are too numerous to list here) is that of the 47 US Senators who signed a letter to the leaders of Iran, warning them that whatever negotiations they and President Obama agreed on, the next president could overturn. Treachery of the worst sort.  The Times wondered how the GOP would have reacted to Congressional Democrats authoring such a letter to the Kremlin while Mr. Gorbachev and President Reagan were negotiating a nuclear arms agreement.  It would have been unthinkable, and yet the current GOP Congress (most of whom never even read the letter) had no regrets taking part in their treachery.

Mitch McConnell just recently told foreign governments to "ignore the carbon-emissions goal Mr. Obama was trying to set by international agreement.  Because climate-change deniers in Congress and in some states oppose the efforts, setting those goals is pointless, Mr. McConnell pronounced last month."

The Times continues:  "If this insurrection is driven by something other than a blend of ideological extremism and personal animosity, it's not clear what that might be.  But it is ugly, it deepens a mistrust of government, and it harms the office of the president, not just Mr. Obama."

The TPer GOP's maniacal hatred of this president and his wife is about more than policy differences (remember, the ACA was based on a REPUBLICAN idea), it's about something deeper, darker, more shameful, and destructive than mere ideological differences.  History will not be kind to the GOP and how they've behaved during Mr. Obama's presidency.

The good news is that overall, the Obama presidency will be seen as a success, and the TGOPers will be seen as utterly insane in their uncontrolled rage and hatred of Mr. and Mrs. Obama.


A different perspective:


Paul Krugman:



"...Obama faces trash talk left, right and center – literally – and doesn't deserve it. Despite bitter opposition, despite having come close to self-inflicted disaster, Obama has emerged as one of the most consequential and, yes, successful presidents in American history. 

His health reform is imperfect but still a huge step forward – and it's working better than anyone expected. Financial reform fell far short of what should have happened, but it's much more effective than you'd think. Economic management has been half-crippled by Republican obstruction, but has nonetheless been much better than in other advanced countries. And environmental policy is starting to look like it could be a major legacy. 

 I'll go through those achievements shortly. First, however, let's take a moment to talk about the current wave of Obama-bashing. All Obama-bashing can be divided into three types. One, a constant of his time in office, is the onslaught from the right, which has never stopped portraying him as an Islamic atheist Marxist Kenyan. Nothing has changed on that front, and nothing will. 


And this not so satirical satire from Andy Borowitz:


Republicans Promise Smooth Transition of Hate from Obama to Clinton 

WASHINGTON - Republicans today promised that there will be a "seamless transition of hatred" if President Obama is succeeded in office by Hillary Clinton. "Like many Americans, we will be saddened to see our lawsuits, investigations, and general harassment directed towards President Obama come to an end," said House Speaker John Boehner. 

"But we want to reassure everyone that we are very much up to the challenge of transferring our hatred to a President Clinton." Boehner promised the American people that the tormenting of the new Democratic President would begin on her first day in office. "The fact that we began this process while she was still Secretary of State will really enable us to hit the ground running," he said.