Thou shalt not criticize The Won - Obama criticism shuts down conversation

from Don Surber.com
May 4, 2009

Detroit Free Press columnist: “If you want to stop a conversation in its tracks, just question something President Barack Obama has said or done. It’s not open to debate — and I don’t think that’s healthy, for the country or the president.”

Welcome Laura Varon Brown to the right side.

Well, except after admitting that criticism of Obama is off limits, Brown goes on to blame the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy for all this.

Wrote Brown: “We have changed leaders and yes, probably for the better, yet we seem to remain as polarized as ever. Half the country wants to argue and the other half doesn’t want to talk about it. That’s not progress. And certainly not the progress Obama talks about wanting.”

I don’t know about that. Obama has held out the back of his hand to conservatives and Republicans alike. His my-way-or-the-highway approach is in stark contrast to President Bush’s early work with liberals to get No Child Left Behind passed.

Obama promised post-partisanship; his idea, however, is to have but one party.

Brown’s column is here.

True, it took longer than 100 days to pass.

But haste makes waste.
Her column is here.

Obama criticism shuts down conversation
by Laura Varon Brown
Free Press Columnist
May 3, 2009

Parties were more fun when George W. Bush was president. You could debate, argue even, praise and condemn, throw darts and laurels and solve the world's problems over a bottle of wine.

No more. At least not in my circles. If you want to stop a conversation in its tracks, just question something President Barack Obama has said or done. It's not open to debate -- and I don't think that's healthy, for the country or the president.

It's especially unsettling for a free speech girl like me. The First Amendment is important -- but lately, it feels like my right of self-expression is being squashed.

One example: Obama's comment to Jay Leno on "The Tonight Show," comparing his bowling abilities to someone in the Special Olympics.

Can you imagine the uproar had Bush said that? He'd be banished from bowling alleys for eternity. His bowling average and IQ would have immediately been compared in Twitter messages demanding his resignation.

But instead, media and water cooler conversations the next day were about bowling scores and how tough the game can be. Anyone bringing up the insensitivity of the president's remark heard, "Come on, give the guy a chance. So he said one thing wrong. Anyone could have said something like that." End of discussion.

Anyone remember poor Dan Quayle, the vice president who misspelled "potato" at a school spelling bee in 1992? No second chance for a Republican. Five months after the resulting media field day, Quayle and the first President Bush were voted out of office.

And doesn't anyone want to debate the wisdom of Obama's people allowing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who derides the "imperialist United States," to hand the president a book in an embarrassing publicity stunt that rocketed the leftist tome, "The Open Veins of Latin America" to the top of the best-seller lists? A couple of months ago, we were refusing to buy Venezuelan gas; now we're rushing out to buy copies of an anti-American book. This is certainly fair game for party talk.

The point is, whatever side you come from, you have the right to talk -- which comes with an obligation to listen.
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