Obama And Palin

Victor David Hanson writes most persuasively about war and peace, more often than not two sides to a similar coin: Long periods of peace in history often follow decisive wars.

Here Mr. David Hanson scrolls out some highly objectionable quotes from President Barack Obama – nice to have in an rhetorical ammo dump (please forgive the metaphor) when recent converts to bi-partisanship begin to chafe under assaults (forgive the metaphor) from their opponents:

“There is much talk that Sarah Palin’s ‘crosshairs’ ad pushed Loughner over the edge. But if sloppy use of gun metaphors can drive anyone to shoot congressional representatives, think what we are up against when the president of the United States invokes violent imagery to galvanize his supporters. What are we to make of Obama’s warning of ‘hand-to-hand combat’ if the Republicans take over; or his comment that one of his supporters could ‘tear [Sean Hannity] up’; or his Untouchables boast that ‘if they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun’; or his advice to supporters of his presidential campaign to argue with Republicans and independents and ‘get in their face’?

“Why would a president boast about figuring out ‘whose ass to kick,’ or, in a climate of fear about terrorism, call his opponents ‘hostage takers’? In a post-9/11 world, is it prudent for the commander-in-chief to say of his political opponents, ‘Here’s the problem: It’s almost like they’ve got — they’ve got a bomb strapped to them and they’ve got their hand on the trigger. You don’t want them to blow up’? What about, ‘But you’ve got to kind of talk them, ease that finger off the trigger’?

“Also, in a political twofer, Obama once not only evoked gun imagery, but did so in a context of relegating Republicans into second-class citizenry: ‘We can’t have special interests sitting shotgun. We gotta have middle class families up in front. We don’t mind the Republicans joining us. They can come for the ride, but they gotta sit in back.’”