They must be racists? How Else Could They Not Love Him?

Chris Matthews: When Will The Obama Haters Stop Hating? | RealClearPolitics: The interesting thing here is that Matthew's case for why Republicans should love Obama is so glaringly weak. He has essentially four points:

Obama made a great speech in 2004--well, so what? The rap on Obama from the beginning is that he is great at making speeches and nothing else. Pointing to a great speech is hardly an effective counter to that.

Obama killed bin Laden--indeed he did. But would any other president have done otherwise? Was the rap on Bush that he was not willing to kill people?

He saved the economy in 2009, the stock market having doubled since then--The bailout of the banks written by Bush and voted for by both Obama and McCain pulled the economy out of the financial crisis. What has been prominent since then is how anemic the recovery has been since then compared to other recessions. Does Obama get the blame for that? The one bright spot has been the stock market. But what does it say when the only part of your economy that is thriving is the financial market? Might that not be because of Obama's spending and Bernanke's printing press? To paraphrase Vice-Presidential candidate LLoyd Bensten in response to a question about the Reagan recovery that he and Mike Dukakis had to contend with in 1988, "You let me write a few trillion dollars in hot checks and I'll throw a hell of a party, too." The difference is not in the severity of the recessions from which they were recovering but in the size of the parties that their deficits bought.

Finally, Obama's personal qualities, his marriage and how hard he worked and how much he achieved in school--I have nothing to say against Obama as a parent and husband, but this is hardly a guarantee of popularity. Ask Truman, and Nixon and Carter and, oh well, you get the picture. To say that the fact that an exemplary family life does not insulate one from political opposition is proof that the opposition is based on race is just bizarre.

But what is most odd is the use of Obama's school record as a reason we should like him. It is a strange thing to say in defense of a president in the first place. Did anyone care in 1992 that H. W. Bush had graduated from Yale in three years Magna Cum Laude? It is in general a strange thing to be brought up in evaluating a president. But it is especially strange in the case of Obama, who is the one president whose school records are not public. If it is so important and such a cause for us to love him, why not put them out there? How can you use his academic record from 25 years ago to defend him and not mention that he is the only occupant of the Oval Office in modern times to have kept his academic records secret?