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Politico, please define "target"

June 15, 2009 9:34 am ET by Eric Boehlert

Before this story completely slips away, let's take a quick look at this dubious spin from Politico:

The weeklong scuffle between Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and late-night comedian David Letterman has given many on the political right something they've lacked in recent months — a tasty target.

Oh for crying out loud, conservatives have been running short on targets? The political right hasn't had anyone to rally its hate around? This is just too much.

The truth is that conservatives, with the hyperventilating help of the GOP's media Noise Machine, have spent the last four months turning Barack Obama into a barn-size target, accusing the new president of every conceivable (and inconceivable) sin against humanity.

Conservatives couldn't find a target before the Letterman kerfuffle? Please, target practice is the only game they play. Just as Judge Sonia Sotomayor, who right-wing talkers immediately demonized as a "racist."

It's quite astonishing that a Beltway news outlet, such as Politico, witnesses the relentless, unprecedented attacks against Obama yet still thinks conservatives have been lacking in targets. The unhinged attacks on Obama represent arguably the biggest Beltway news story of the year, yet Politico remains oblivious to the destructive brand of hardball being played by the right.

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    • Author by ReasonAndResolve (June 15, 2009 10:03 am ET)
      3  
      In a month that has seen far-right wackos shooting a man dead in his church and attacking the Holocaust Museum in Washington (killing one innocent man), I find the very notion of the right looking for a "tasty target" frighteningly ironic.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by MickD (June 15, 2009 10:36 am ET)
      2  
      Maybe they were just saying that FINALLY the neocons have a legitimate reason to "target" someone. They certainly didn't have any legitimacy in the other targets you cited.

      The Repubs seek power by looking for the bulleyes on the backs of their fellow citizens.
      Report Abuse
      • Author by magnolialover (June 15, 2009 10:56 am ET)
        2  
        Even if they did have a legit "target", said target, being Letterman, doesn't represent the left in any way, shape, or form. He's a late night talk show host who has always been a somewhat funny comedian.

        Report Abuse
    • Author by RKAllen (June 15, 2009 11:40 am ET)
         
      The truth is that conservatives, with the hyperventilating help of the GOP's media Noise Machine, have spent the last four months turning Barack Obama into a barn-size target, accusing the new president of every conceivable (and inconceivable) sin against humanity.
      I think we are going to see a shift in the focus of attacks from the right. They have focused their attention on the POTUS for almost six months now, and nothing they are doing seems to stick. His approval ratings remain high and their numbers in the polls are evaporating before their eyes. The problem is, he is the face of their outrage, and I think we have all seen that the Repubs/Cons must have a faceless foe to conduct a proper war.

      They are going to begin marginalizing Obama as a pawn and start focusing on the Democratic party / Liberalism as a whole.
      Report Abuse
      • Author by juliajayne1 (June 15, 2009 2:35 pm ET)
           
        They are going to begin marginalizing Obama as a pawn and start focusing on the Democratic party / Liberalism as a whole.

        They've already started to do this by making those statements about empathy, since Liberals believe in the concept and the RWers want everybody to pull themselves up by their boot straps. At least somebody advising the Repubs thinks that a winning strategy, although I don't get it. But then we are talking about opposite world with that crew.

        Report Abuse
    • Author by seeryer (June 15, 2009 11:48 am ET)
      2  
      How about Pu$$y Galore? How about "The Messiah"? How about Janet Napolitano? How about Geoorge Tiller? How about "The Slobbering Love Affair"? How about the "Porkulus Bill"? How about "the coming Obama gun ban"? How about the Miss America Pageant? HOw about closing Gitmo? How about "the most pro abortion president in American history"? Give us a F-ing break Politico.
      Report Abuse

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