Numbers Game

Jake Tapper is wondering why Obama feels the need to constantly berate the previous administration, even in subtle ways:

As he's traveled throughout Europe this past week, from the G-20 economic summit in London, to the NATO conference in Strasbourg, France, to here in Turkey, President Obama has not only made clear his policy differences with his predecessor, and his markedly different diplomatic style, he has made it clear to Europe and the rest of the world that his respect for the way President Bush conducted foreign policy knows bounds.

Count 'em--his declaration that America is not a Christian nation (when everyone should know America has never been a theocracy); the clarification that we're not at war with Islam (even though Bush and Blair repeatedly hammered this point, aka, the "religion of peace"); his apology for dropping nukes on the Japanese to end WWII; and the ever-present "we don't torture", as if Cheney was sawing off limbs of innocent peasants in the White House basement. Surely that's not a complete list. What's the strategy, fortifying every single moonbat talking point fueled by the Bush-hating press these past eight years?

Maybe maybe. Here's the money sequence in the Tapper piece, with David Axelrod responding to the Krauthammer screed on Fox the other day:

The Obama White House sees it quite differently, pointing to poll numbers showing an erosion of support for the U.S. during President Bush's two terms, and improved international poll numbers now.

There you have it--polling. They are bashing Bush and America because a poll told them to do it. A poll told them that the mainstream media's multi-year program of overhyped hyperbole about the evils of Bush and our image abroad--essentially for reacting to something so dastardly as a terrorist attack--had worked by spreading a perception of America-hate across the globe that ObamaCo must now repair, further fortifying the false perception. Folks, we aren't waiting for an Orwellian future anymore, it's already here.

MORE 4/7/09

This isn't the first time Obama has riled things up by insinuating the Bush administration was at war with Islam. Here's a useful reminder of how disingenuous that notion is:



Does anyone remember if he included the liberal government of Britain in the bitch slap?