Dirty Politics 101

You Got The Power, Inc.
Program Outline
February 1, 2012

Topic of Discussion: Dirty Politics 101

• Arizona Governor Jan Brewer made the national headlines again

• The Governor was photographed poking her finger in the Presidents face, while she appeared to be yelling at him

• It was most unseemly and inappropriate, not at all the style of protocol one displays toward the President of the United States

• Talking with one’s hands is one thing, pointing your finger in the face and yelling at the President of the United States is another matter all together

• In an ABC News interview, President Obama said, “I think it’s always good publicity for a Republican if they’re in an argument with me”

• Brewer ends up winning big

  • Before the airport exchange Brewer's book ranked 276,665th in sales

  • Afterwards, Brewer's book skyrocketed up to become the 8th best seller on Amazon and #1 in three different political categories

  • Brewer (R) also sought to fill her political action committee's coffers with a new fundraising effort based on her recent high-profile encounter with President Barack Obama on a Phoenix airport tarmac

• This is the Superiority Syndrome: People acting as if they’re more important than a U.S. President — when they clearly are not

• When people criticize Administration policy, that’s just politics

• But several incidents directed at this President appear to find new lows

• People can disagree with the President

• But, why can’t people respect the Office of the Presidency?

• Would a visiting leader from a foreign country be greeted with a finger in his face by a Governor?

• If not, why would it happen to the leader of our own country?

• No one can find another example in American history where a U.S. President requested a date to address Congress and was refused

• Can anyone find another incident like the Brewer one?

  • What’s with the public announcement? In July 2010 McConnell acknowledged his single most important political goal: President Obama being a one-term President. Again: In public and on national television.

1. 1. 1. 1. The birther fiasco (2009-2011). No evidence. No proof. No documentation.

• • • • • Atlanta judge orders Obama to court to counter 'birther' claim

        • After nearly a full-term in office, numerous pieces of proof, and a publicly displayed birth certificate, you'd think that President Barack Obama would not have to continue to have his American citizenship challenged

        • Unfortunately, that's not the case as yet another "birther" claims that the President's birth certificate is not enough proof that he is a natural born citizen

        • A Georgia man is demanding to see Obama's Hawaiian hospital records, which are confidential under federal law, or his mother's OB/GYN records

1. 1. 1. 1. “You lie” (Sept. 2009).

• • • • That any individual — no less a member of Congress watching a U.S. President during a joint session on live national television — is so lacking in self control that this moment was made possible is incredible

1. 1. 1. 1. Signs of the Tea Party (July 2010) and Naked Racism (April 2011).

• • • • Anyone remember California GOP official Marilyn Davenport’s racist e-mail?

      • Did she ever resign for that?

1. 1. 1. 1. Donald Trump inflames birther fiasco, media assists (April 2011)

• • • • News organizations invited Trump on the air unchallenged with zero proof of what he was saying speaks volumes on the state of journalism.

      • The fact ghat Trump was completely comfortable demanding that a U.S. President “show him his papers” displays a superiority complex that exists among those who can’t accept someone they view as “lesser” in a position of power over them.

1. 1. 1. 1. Newt Gingrich’s “Kenyan anti-colonial behavior” comment (Sept 2010).

• • • • Even Washington Post columnist and conservative thinker George Will slammed this attempt to define the President as “foreign.”

• One of the underlying premises of disrespect towards the President is that he can be ordered around and dictated to like he’s Tipi the laundry boy

• The presumption that a U.S. President can be ordered around is a new phenomenon that appears to have gotten underway around January 2009

• From big mouth Congressmen to millionaires with nothing to do, you name it — they all inherently believe they can order President Obama around

• Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) Publicly Announces His Top Political Priority (Dec 2010). “Our top political priority over the next two years should be to deny President Obama a second term,” Sen. McConnell told the Heritage Foundation

  • What’s with the public announcement?

  • In July 2010 McConnell acknowledged his single most important political goal: President Obama being a one-term President.

  • Again: In public and on national television.

• Presidents often have highly disagreeable relationships with members of Congress from the opposing party

• Most of those fights between the President and Congress stemmed from deep policy divides

• The relentless acrimony from Congressional Republicans seems strikingly personal, almost petty

• Yet, there's also a xenophobic flair most often comes from elected officials who represent both the GOP and the burgeoning Tea Party

• John Boehner, Eric Cantor, and other high-ranking Republicans have all seized on a plan of attacking President Obama

• Let's not forget Republic Congressman Doug Lamborn’s “tar baby” remarks last summer

• President Obama has had to deflect some of the GOP’s harshest barbs, exhibiting a grace that has caused some critics to complain that he should meet the fire head on

• The particular way President Obama has been verbally attacked points to racism as the bottom line

• The likes of Brewer, Wilson, and Lamborn should be taken to task for their behavior and outright racism

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