I think Dan Henninger of the Wall Street Journal makes an excellent point. The contrast between Barack Obama the campaigner and President Obama the Manichean is dramatic. He has become, as noted below, his own Saul Alinsky, demonizing his opposition at every turn, from the State of the Union on.
Perhaps this is because VP Joe Biden, who would traditionally play this political role, is too much the happy gaffer. Or perhaps it is because this is the President's true nature; something he really enjoys, and reflects his true beliefs -- post "Hope and Change."
Such "internal demagoguery" as I call it, is surely the stock in trade of totalitarians such as Hugo Chavez and Vladimir Putin, who use it to justify their seizure of property and suspension of rights. But our country has its practitioners as well.
I stepped back from political journalism years ago because of my own tendency to take it, and make it, much too personal. It's a kind of radioactive madness that infects many in political life.
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