Barack Obama still light years behind George W. Bush when it comes to using fear as a weapon

A couple weeks ago, Jonah Goldberg wrote a column for the Los Angeles Times, claiming that Barack Obama is a fear monger.

Recall that not long ago, the first item on the bill of indictment against the Bush administration was that it was “exploiting” 9/11 to enact its agenda. Al Gore shrieked that President Bush “played on our fears” to get his way. In response to nearly every Bush policy proposal, from the Patriot Act to the toppling of Saddam Hussein, critics would caterwaul that Bush was taking advantage of the country’s fear of terrorism.

The Bush administration always denied this, and rightly so. If the president admitted that he was using a national calamity for narrow partisan or ideological advantage, it would be outrageous. Indeed, every time Karl Rove or some other administration official said anything that could be even remotely interpreted as using the war or 9/11 for partisan or ideological gain, the editorial pages and Democratic news-release factories churned into overdrive with righteous indignation.

Well, now we have the president, along with his chief aides, admitting — boasting! — that they want to exploit a national emergency for their preexisting agenda, and there’s no scandal. No one even calls it a gaffe. No, they call it leadership.

It’s not leadership. It’s fear-mongering.

This isn’t to attack Goldberg, who very likely doesn’t even remember what the hell he wrote two weeks ago, nor cares a whit. It’s still impressive the sheer amount of myopia that could go into writing that the Bush Administration didn’t exploit 9/11. Because compared to Barack Obama’s words about the economy, Bush was flat-out a terrorist mastermind while President.

The House’s failure to pass the bipartisan Senate bill would jeopardize the security of our citizens. As Director McConnell has told me, without this law, our ability to prevent new attacks will be weakened. And it will become harder for us to uncover terrorist plots. We must not allow this to happen. It is time for Congress to ensure the flow of vital intelligence is not disrupted. It is time for Congress to pass a law that provides a long-term foundation to protect our country. And they must do so immediately.

Seriously, Bush terrorized the U.S. far, far more than any Islamic group. From 9/11 on, the Bush Administration put its foot on the neck of the American populace and kept it there.

So whether you’re happy with how Obama’s doing or not, it’s truly idiocy to even entertain the idea that Obama could fear monger anywhere near how well Bush did it.

–WKW

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