The answer is "scaremongering," of course.
Through crocodile tears, conservatives say it is downright un-presidential for President Obama to warn America that economic disaster looms if Congress doesn’t pass his economic stimulus package. The website of the indispensable Washington Times, the house organ of the far right crowd, did itself proud today with an analysis by Joseph Curl called "'Doom' talk scored as 'not presidential.'" Brad Blakeman, a former aide to President Bush, told Curl "an American leader needs to be hopeful and optimistic and truthful." He deftly sidesteps the point that the Bush Administration did everything in its power to scare the wits out of America with talk of possible mushroom clouds and various fabrications about weapons of mass destruction.
And Dick Cheney is still at it. He just can't jump off that old doom and gloom bandwagon because that is his vehicle of choice. Cheney told Politico last week the next attack on the U.S. won’t be from guys with box cutters hijacking an airline.
The former VP thinks big. He sees a biological weapon or nuke attack in which "perhaps hundreds of thousands of people" die. "There's a high probability of such an attempt," said Cheney.
Curl, who dismisses Obama as the "Yes, We Can" man, quotes pollster Frank Luntz saying "Mr. Hope has to be careful not to become Dr. Doom." Luntz goes on to say Obama can use only so much negativity until voters feel they are betrayed.
Note to Frank: Obama’s supporters are a hopeful bunch, but their heads aren’t buried in the sand. The new President was dealt a tough hand. Hard work lies ahead before its cotton candy and unicorn time in America again.
Obama would be a lot cheerier these days if he got some political support on the economic recovery front from Republicans. Or at the very least, if they offered some real ideas about putting the country’s economy back together again, rather than dishing out that old tired “cut taxes” chestnut.
The WashTimes -- really on a roll -- threw the kitchen sink at Obama, blaming every foreign woe on the new administration. It believes things have gone south for America in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Yemen, Pakistan and North Korea because Obama is President of the U.S. "Everybody wants to figure him out. What is he? Who is he? It's obviously very important," asks Micheal Ledeen of the conservative Foundation for the Defense of Democracies., in the overheated piece called "Overseas challenges cascade on Obama."
The world will find out in due time what our guy is made of. Obama has been in office for less than a month. He has to fix the mess he inherited here before fixing the mess he inherited overseas.