Bad Politics As Usual: Republicans Want Failure For Obama

Despite the fact that the majority of the American people voted for change, I find it’s still politics as usual. I wrote in here in the beginning of March about talk show host Rush Limbaugh’s hopes that President Obama would fail. Now, I read today that former politician and Law & Order alum Fred D. Thompson also wishes failure for Barack Obama. Of course, he qualifies it with the disclaimer that "I want his policies that I believe take us in the wrong direction to fail" (see article and video below).

But let’s put Thompson’s comments into perspective. Here’s a guy who quit politics and went into acting, then quit acting and went back into politics to run for the presidency. He ran a lifeless campaign and was a lifeless candidate. The American people – including fellow Republicans – turned away from Thompson and he quickly fell away from the pack and was out of the race. (Now he’s a radio talk show host.) I suspect that Thompson’s comments mean even less to people now, especially to the large number of Americans who do support President Obama.

Thompson’s commentary on the matter was triggered as part of an interview on CNN (below) where he was asked about comments made by Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, who says it’s OK that people want Obama to fail.

I am sorry, but I just don’t get the whole wishing for failure thing. The economy is in a mess and the American people voted for change. They wanted action, not endless quibbling, backstabbing, and ill-will wishers. While the current economic mess flourished and came to a head under the Bush administration, the root of the problem goes father back from that. Politicians let this whole mess get away from them, and now they all want a say - their say - in how to fix things. The problem is, there isn’t a unified plan put forth by the Republicans to counter what the Obama administration has put forward. It’s easy to sit back and nit pick the budget and the economic crisis piece by piece, but it is a very complex thing to create a plan that tries to fix it all. And as President Obama said in his press conference last night, this is not quick fix. The Republicans had 8 years to try to identify, prevent, or fix the economic problems of the country and they didn’t do it. The people voted for change, and that’s enough for me to support the president’s plan. I may not be thrilled with every single line of it, but in the grand scheme of things, I don’t see anything better.

I look at it this way: Failure is not an option. Any politician, Republican or Democrat, who wishes for failure doesn’t belong in the job. If they don’t agree with a certain part of the budget or the economic plan, then they need to take the appropriate steps to make changes, through the political system that they were elected to navigate. But if they lose their argument, then I expect them to support whatever gets approved or passed, and if they can’t, then they need to get out of the way for someone who wants to work for the success of the American people, not for their failure.

Fred Thompson on CNN’s American Morning


Thompson: I don't want Obama's policies to succeed
From CNN Associate Producer Martina Stewart


WASHINGTON (CNN) - Count former GOP presidential candidate Fred Thompson among the growing chorus of prominent Republicans who want President Obama's policies to fail.

Tuesday evening Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal called pressure to support Obama's policies "political correctness run amok."

Thompson told CNN's John Roberts Wednesday that he agreed with some of his fellow Republicans who have said publicly they do not want the president's policies to be successful.

"I want his policies that I believe take us in the wrong direction to fail," Thompson told Roberts on CNN's American Morning.

"If he takes us down the road of tripling our national debt in ten years and making us vulnerable to higher interest rates and higher inflation, and things of that nature, I want all those policies not to succeed," he said.

Thompson, who made the rising cost of entitlement spending a focus of his 2008 presidential run, said he'd be happy to help Obama overhaul those programs.

"If he wants to do that, I will join with him. I'll do everything I can to make him succeed with regard to that because that's the whole ball game in terms of our fiscal future in this country," said the former Tennessee senator.

Thompson criticized Obama's ambitious health care agenda, telling Roberts the president's plans would cost the government more than they would save.






Check out my blog home page for the latest information,
The Frequent Critic, here.