The Rhetoric is Ratcheting Up

Much has been made lately of Rush Limbaugh’s intemperate comments expressing a desire for the president to fail.  This was simply a more blatant expression than Ken Blackwell’s convoluted reasoning that President Obama’s economic stimulus plan was little more than a craven effort to secure a longstanding Democratic majority.   And just this morning, Senator John McCain expressed his distaste for the economic stimulus plan.

So despite generic expressions of support for the new president from McCain and Republican Congressional leaders, their opposition to him appears to be hardening and becoming increasingly shrill and ridiculous.

But guess who else is becoming increasingly shrill and ridiculous in their criticism of President Obama?  Al Qaeda.

According to a front-page story in today’s Washington Post, Ayman al-Zawahiri and other al Qaeda leaders have been hurling insults at our new president, calling him “a house Negro” and blaming him for the recent Israeli military assault on Gaza.

The torrent of hateful words is part of what terrorism experts now believe is a deliberate, even desperate, propaganda campaign against a president who appears to have gotten under al-Qaeda’s skin. The departure of George W. Bush deprived al-Qaeda of a polarizing American leader who reliably drove recruits and donations to the terrorist group.

Obama must be doing something right, to cause such angst among two disparate groups whose only common denominator is satisfaction with George W. Bush’s presidency.