Coburn’s Take On ‘Lefty’ Obama

U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn’s reaction to President Barack Obama’s speech on Wednesday is part of the Republican plan to label the president a leftist despite his centrist policies.

In a statement featured on his web site, Coburn said:

. . . if President Obama wants to become the transformational leader he is capable of being, he needs to recognize he was given a mandate to unify the country, not drive through the agenda of the ideological left. This has been a year of hyper-partisanship in Washington because the President and congressional leadership have chosen a hyper-partisan, ideological agenda that has divided America. If the President brought the political center of the country together he may not always get my vote but the country would be better off. Still, I make no apologies for saying no to the obscene abuse of taxpayer dollars that takes place as a matter of course in the United States Senate.

This is typical GOP operating procedure. Republicans will associate Obama with the “ideological left” no matter what he does or what policies he proposes. This is simply rhetorical deceitfulness that plays well with the base, and it’s a calculated political strategy. Will it work? It has here in Oklahoma.

What type of leftist “hyper-partisan” policies has Obama brought to the country? He has bailed out huge Wall Street banks and continued two ill-advised and botched military occupations. He continues to champion businesses, big and small. The current health care initiative, which hasn’t passed, won’t include a public option and would reward big insurance companies with new customers. Some experts believe the federal stimulus program was too small, not too big.

Coburn’s statement conveniently ignores the reality that Republicans were trounced in national elections in 2008 because of inept GOP leadership that brought about the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Senate Republicans, in particular, are obstructing the will of the America people, who voted for change last year.

Obama’s speech Wednesday night contained an honest reckoning of his first year in office, which, in itself, was fresh in terms of the usual Washington politics. Obama inherited a real mess from former President George Bush, and he’s done a solid job when you consider how many problems he faced when taking office. Wouldn’t it be great if Coburn could do an honest reckoning of the Bush years and stop distorting Obama’s record?