Alex Castellanos Republican dirty trickster claims that President Obama has been a divisive president because he's...gasp, daring to take on Wall Street and insurance companies. I'm sorry Alex, but anyone's going to claim he's being divisive, those are two items where I think you're failing pretty badly with your talking points. The only division I've seen on those matters is the liberal base thinking they've not been tough enough with what may be coming and the astroturf tea bagger dupes out there with their Hitler signs. The reality I live in with fellow co-workers who aren't too happy about what's happened to their 401K, there isn't anything "divisive" about regulating Wall Street at all. We're also not too fond of our insurance premiums going up year after year.
He then goes on to say that "the rehabilitation of George Bush is well underway". And he said it with a straight face. Sorry Alex, but history is not going to treat George Bush well despite your best attempts at turd polishing. I'd love to know what street Castellanos lives on, but if I had to guess it's one called Upside Down Land. What's white is black and vice versa in this hack's world. He should be taken about as seriously as CNN's other newest contributor, Erick Erickson. They're both nothing but flacks for the Republican Party that never allow facts to get in the way of their talking points.
Transcript below the fold.
BLITZER: The turn out in a mid-term election, Alex, it's critical, because you don't have a presidential contest right now. Only the most enthusiastic voters actually show up, and that's usually older folks.
ALEX CASTELLANOS: That's usually older voters and it's folks who are concerned or scared about something. You know, Obama's voters won their election. They got the president they wanted. Now the voters are out there most concerned thinking Washington's spending too much, taxing too much, and not listening to them. Those are not Democrats. Those are independents and Republicans who look pretty much alike. The president who inspired those younger voters, Wolf, those Latinos, women, that was a very inspirational Obama. Yes, we can. Remember the campaign? Since then he's been a very divisive president. You know, Goldman Sachs, insurance companies. It seems like there's always an evil villain. I think he's looking very small and political and not like a big leader, and that's really what got his base out.
[...]
BLITZER: Let me pick your brains. We've got the book jacket now for the new George W. Bush memoir that will be coming out in November, just a few days after the mid-term elections. There it is, "Decision Points" by George W. Bush. Alex, a lot of folks are saying, at least from your perspective, Republican conservatives, he's looking a lot better now than he did when he left office.
CASTELLANOS: You know, he sure is, Wolf, and I think the rehabilitation of George Bush is well underway. It was about six year ago that one president stood up and said, you know, we've got to do something about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac or else we'll have an economic crisis. That was George Bush. Chris Dodd and others in Congress, the Barney Franks didn't listen. History will treat him well for that. He was right about Iraq. He found a way to get us out, and even President Obama ratified that. So I think this book is going to add to that, and put, I think, his presidency in a larger context, and history's going to treat him well.
