Like cult members awaking to find their leader swigging gin and squirreling money into a Swiss bank account, liberals are rubbing their eyes in disbelief at President Obama’s behavior. The figure they worshiped so fervently and for so long is now revealed to be a “sexist” — at least according to National Organization for Women President Terry O’Neill.
Her view is seconded by Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. They are upset about the president’s derisive treatment of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who committed a sin the president does not take kindly — she disagreed with him. For differing about the merits of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, she got what everyone should already recognize as the Obama treatment: Her views were caricatured, and her motives were questioned. “The truth of the matter is that Elizabeth is, you know, a politician like everybody else.” Brown thought the president’s use of Warren’s first name betokened sexism.
No, Sen. Brown, that’s not sexism; that’s all-purpose disrespect. The president has been displaying the same condescension to world leaders, senate majority leaders, house speakers and everyone else since first taking office. It was always “John” and “Harry” and “Hillary” — never Speaker Boehner, Leader Reid or Secretary Clinton. It was “Angela” and “David,” not Chancellor Merkel and Prime Minister Cameron.
So welcome to our world, liberals. Now that your eyes are opened, take a look at the completely unjust, snide and dishonest way Obama talked about Republicans at the Georgetown University panel on poverty a few days ago.
The most fair-mindedness Obama could muster was to say he believes Republicans care about the poor. But this acknowledgment was quickly vitiated by his insistence that if Republicans don’t agree with him about increasing the tax on hedge-fund managers, they are insincere. If the tax rate on “carried interest” were raised, the president declared, “I” could fund universal preschool.
Um, no. The left-leaning Center for American Progress estimates that raising taxes on hedge-fund managers could bring in $21 billion over 10 years, or a little more than $2 billion per year. According to the National Institute for Early Education Research, universal preschool for all 3- and 4-year-olds would clock in at $70 billion per year — not counting what we spend on existing pre-k programs. Now, I don’t give a fig about hedge-fund managers, but here’s a thought: How much would increasing their taxes really raise? Probably nothing. As John Carney of CNBC showed, they could take their income a different way and avoid the tax.
Obama flays the rich the way a compass points north, often bizarrely unaware of how he’s embarrassing himself.
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