Over the past two years Republicans have skewered President Barack Obama. They have labeled him everything from racist to incompetent; called him a socialist; the worst president ever; accused him of failing to lead and (according to Republican Eric Cantor) “absent from the budget discussion”; said he was “irresponsible and malicious” (Representative Mike Lee); and of holding “anti-American views” (Minnesota Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann).

The President has been accused of being a liar by Republican Congressman Joe Wilson; of being a con man with a “Kenyan anti-colonial world view” by former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich; and of failure to lead and being “spectator in chief” with regard to Japan and Libya, also by Gingrich.
Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, said that “the single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president”; and Speaker of the House John Boehner said that the President is not a leader, but “merely sits on the sidelines”.

Republican leaders in the House and Senate criticized the President for not jumping knee-jerk fashion into Libya, but instead taking the time to build an international coalition and get United Nations sanction; then many of the same people blasted him for going in at all.

According to a Harris Interactive Poll, 67% of Republicans think the President is a socialist; 61% believe he is a Muslim; 55% are convinced that he “has done many unconstitutional things”, and 51% say that he “wants to turn United States’ sovereignty over to a one-world government”. Forty one percent of Republicans believe Obama was “probably” or “definitely” born in another country (These numbers are from a CNN poll released shortly before the 2010 elections). And a Tea Party billboard pictured President Obama between pictures Lenin and Hitler, with the phrase “Radical leaders prey on the fearful and naïve”. Conservatives on talk shows and in the newspapers (particularly Glenn Beck and Cal Thomas) compared the President’s policies to fascism and to Nazism.

This is just a sample of the attacks that keep coming each day, and through it all President Obama has remained the adult in the room. To the chagrin of many of his supporters he has not fought back, but instead he has kept “his eye on the prize”.

On Wednesday of this week the President laid out a deficit reduction plan. He was clear in both vision and substance. He was equally clear in shining a light on the Republican budget charade, which is simply another attempt to destroy the social fabric of our nation under the guise of deficit reduction. Those who didn’t hear or read the speech ought to do so.

Republican leaders and their Fox News surrogates blasted the speech as “excessively partisan… an election campaign speech… disgusting… a partisan broadside… corrosive… demagoguism”.

So, when Republicans offer distortions, lies, character assassinations and demagoguery with regard to President Obama and his policies and accomplishments, it is simply accepted. When the President correctly points out that the GOP emperors have no substance in their policies, he is the one condemned for being partisan. Come on! Read the speech and make up your own mind.