If Obama= Bush (more or less) why do the Repukes/Freepers still hate him?

[Proud Liberal Dem]

I know most of them are pretty myopic about Democrats in general, specifically in that they pretty much hate just about anybody who has a "D" beside their names unless they speak at their conventions and/or endorse their candidates (i.e. Zel Miller, Joe Lieberman)- then they're "good" Democrats or they're able to use some members of the party in some way to try to drive a wedge between competing factions within the party (i.e. Bob Casey over his exclusion from speaking at the 1992 DNC allegedly because he was pro-life). Otherwise, all other Democrats are basically pond scum and deserving of their hatred and eternal damnation solely because they don't agree with them and, frankly, I haven't heard many conciliatory things about President Obama from any of them- even when he has sought to try to work with them they've basically poked him in the eye. Wonder why? Why did the Repukes not love Clinton more despite his embrace of most of their policies during the remainder of his term? If anything, once they took Congress and Clinton moved himself to the right on some issues, they became even MORE hostile towards him as I recall.

Given how much they worshipped Bush/Cheney for (most of) their (P)residency, and how much some people around here say Obama=Bush (more or less), I'm really surprised that President Obama is not getting more praise from them. However, Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, et. al are nonetheless on the airwaves every single day screeching, hissing, and denouncing President Obama and accusing him of all kinds of treachery and plots to turn our country into a liberal facist dictatorship. Dick and Liz Cheney are out there claiming that Obama's "weak" national security policies are probably going to get a lot of us killed in the future and so on and so on.....

I'm not suggesting that there isn't any reason to "hold Obama's feet to the fire" and make sure he gets rid of and/or revamps the worst excesses of the Buscho-era policies but if Obama=Bush, I'm surprised at the total lack of celebration and jubilation over at Fox News, Free Republic and/or over at the RNC over President Obama's administration (so far) essentially being a third Bush/Cheney term. If President Obama really is so hard at work advancing the right-wing agenda and not ours, then what is the explanation for their continued merciless browbeating of him? Is it that they know he is *secretly* one of them and are bashing him in order to help keep up some kind of "ruse" for the rest of us? Or do they believe that President Obama really isn't quite so passionately embracing their causes (or maybe they're just a bunch of ingrates)? :shrug: Yet, here and elsewhere in the progressive blogosphere, one is NOT hard pressed to find essays and threads claiming that Obama=Bush or, in some cases, that President Obama may even be WORSE than Bush in some aspects and that he is advancing pretty much the same kind of crony capitalism and imperial/military policies that Buscho embraced and advanced during the past 8 years.

Anybody got any ideas about how to read/sort out this apparent contradiction????

[RoyGBiv]

1. Obama does not equal Bush ...

That's how you sort out the contradiction.

[MannyGoldstein]

2. Who said Obama=Bush?

I don't think that anyone has written anything of the sort. Please point us to a link.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

3. Glady (this is just one of many here at DU)

"In stark legal turnaround, Obama now resembles Bush"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8486815

[MannyGoldstein]

8. Resembles in some aspects not the same as =

While it's certainly true that Obama resembles Bush in his love of secrecy and jealous guarding of executive powers, he's not bat-shit nuts, stupid, or evil.

[BlooInBloo]

4. And cue the anti-Obama crowd taking the literalistic defense "no-one said those precise words"...

Happily pretending that the Bush/Obama comparisons (not contrast) are not a-dime-a-dozen on DU.

[liberalmuse]

7. Bingo!

I've come across a half dozen threads already that are absolutely slamming Obama and comparing him to Bush. Some are multiples, but there are a few beyond that. I'm fucking sick to death of it because it is a LIE.

[RoyGBiv]

9. Ayup n/t

[Warren Stupidity]

15. Nobody said those precise words or their equivalent.

The statement "Obama equals Bush" actually means something. It doesn't mean, for example, that Obama continued some Bush era policies while making significant changes in others and making progress on Democratic Party policies that would never have been considered in the prior eight years. It means that there is no difference between Bush and Obama, and that is the OP's dishonest strawman argument. Your inane attempt to block this obvious critique of the OP by denying the actual meaning of the OP's words and claiming that instead they mean something else and cover all criticism of the Obama administration is noted.

[BlooInBloo]

16. Thanks for providing an excellent example.

[lindisfarne]

5. Yes. Environmentally we'd be better off with Bush than Obama. In the realm of health care,

we'd be better off with "continuing with the status quo" than trying to make change (of course, purists see anything that isn't what they want as being worse than no change).

Where's the thread that listed all the things Obama accomplished in 5 months? How many would Bush have done?

[UrbScotty]

11. Here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=8477137

[pnorman]

12. Here's that thread (Journal):

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/GinaMaria

She seems to have stopped compiling in late April, but it's still a pretty impressive listing so far. As for myself, I'd like to have seen stronger action from him on EFCA & Medical Care, but I'll defer to his timing. He not only has the past eight years on his plate, but all the EVIL that began with Reagan. And Bill Clinton wasn't much help in this!

pnorman

[lindisfarne]

13. Thanks. The first reply has the thread I was thinking of (from a few days ago) but yours adds. n/t

[treestar]

6. When Obama extended the benefits to same sex partners

One of my beloved right wing loonies criticized him for that. I found that ironic considering the posts from the other side that did not think that was nearly enough and all the posts I've read on DU hating on Obama for not doing enough to promote gay marriage. On that issue, neither extreme is happy at all. Both sides assume the other would be happy but they are not.

[mikehiggins]

10. Did anybody mention racism? Let me be the first, then.

If Jesus Christ turned out to be part black, the freepers, et al, would hate Him as well.

And just because some of the neo's and right wing pundits left their robes and peaked hats at home doesn't mean they don't buy into the pov.

They will fight him down to the wire and there is no room for compromise or bi-partizanship as long as these folks remain in power.

[Warren Stupidity]

14. Um uh - failed assumption/false equivalency.

plus, and this is just a guess, hardly any of 'them' pay any attention to what is posted here.

Obama does not equal Bush. Anyone claiming that there is no difference is either being dishonest or is an idiot. The Obama administration has certainly disappointed many of us here with the exact nature and quality of the 'change we could count on', but most certainly there has been significant change in many areas, starting with the fact that the president is no longer a fucking idiot and right wing theocratic tool.

[Starry Messenger]

17. Because criticism from the left is totally different from criticism from the right.

What do I win?

[CJCRANE]

18. Don't take everything on a message board at face value.

Most posters are genuine but a few are here to stir things up. That comes with the territory.

I saw a post today that said Obama was Bush's third term. To me that was just an obvious case of "RW copycat and projection" - they take something the left said about their candidate and project it onto Obama.

[billyoc]

19. Because he's black.