Obama Critics: Really So 'Dumb'?

Conservatives react to Andrew Sullivan's article
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 16, 2012 4:21 PM CST
Andrew Sullivan Defends President Obama; Conservative Bloggers React
US President Barack Obama (C) speaks during a town hall style meeting at Lower Hannah's Bend Park in Cannon Falls, Minnesota, August 15, 2011.   (Getty Images)

Andrew Sullivan's unflinching defense of President Obama in Newsweek is irking conservative bloggers today. No wonder, considering the headline: "Why Are Obama's Critics So Dumb?" Taking on the right, Sullivan calls Obamacare a "moderate," fiscally responsible program, and says "a depression was averted" with Obama's $787-billion stimulus package. Engaging the left, he lists successes such as the Iraq pullout and advances in gay rights. Obama "practices a show-don’t-tell, long-game" that takes time to mature, Sullivan writes. "What matters to him is what he can get done, not what he can immediately take credit for."

Reactions are coming in hard and fast:

  • Sullivan provides no proof that the stimulus—which cost $862 billion, thank you very much—diverted a depression, writes Joel B. Pollack on Big Government. Obama has also "coasted on the military success of his Republican predecessor."
  • Conservatives, "dumb"? “Well, sure," writes John Hinderaker on Power Line. "We who are unhappy that unemployment has increased on Obama’s watch ... that our children now owe a $15 trillion debt that we can’t pay—hey, we’re just dumb!”
  • Sullivan falls for Obama's "all-things-to-all-people" illusion, writes Kevin Glass on TownHall: "The piece is a case study in exactly how Obama wishes to portray himself: as a blank canvas upon which anyone can project their most ambitious and noble desires in a politician."
See more reactions on Politico. (More President Obama stories.)

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