Resentment of Authentic Bipartisan Hugs
Some blowback regarding the Pizza House owner and registered Republican who gave Obama a bear hug:
But once word got out that Van Duzer is a registered Republican who voted for Obama in 2008 and is planning to do so again in November, angry conservatives flooded his restaurant’s Yelp page with negative reviews and began staging a boycott. (Sample gem: “I cringe at the thought even of eating at this Big Crapple Pizza. Knowing O’Hussain was there totally creeps it out for me.”)
This from the same crowd who absolutely adored “Joe the Plumber”? That was a guy who approached Obama with an obviously fabricated premise about wanting to buy his boss’ business, clearly making up a projected income at exactly the level where Obama suggested we start taxing people higher. Joe was making nowhere near that amount, and so constructed a fantasy in order to put him in that range. And still he flubbed the intended “gotcha” moment, conceived to put Obama on the spot for raising taxes on an “ordinary” American like him: even under his artificially inflated income, Obama’s plan still would not have raised taxes on imaginary-Joe, or at least it would have done so very minimally. Even more ironic, under the two candidates’ tax plans, real-life Joe would have gotten a way bigger tax cut under Obama—and as things have turned out, Obama over the past four years has not even raised imaginary-Joe’s income tax level, either.
And yet this posing faker was immediately embraced, adored, and vaulted to celebrity-hero status among the same crowd that now heaps hatred and invective upon a small business owner who simply got a bit giddy at having the president drop by—attacking his business and trying to shut him down just for liking the Democrat in office.
That’s a great way to represent the “Real America” conservatives believe in.
Instead, conservatives should look towards this guy as a role model, not for who to vote for, but rather for attitude and reasoning skills. He makes an excellent point about what “building it yourself” really means:
So you’re not one of the people who feel like he’s let the country down in his first term?
The bottom line is this: I own a small business. I take accountability for my business. I’m not looking to blame the government. And if people had the same mentality of taking care of their own businesses instead of looking to blame somebody when things are a little bad—just tightening things up and doing the best they can—I think we’d be better off that way, too.
Read the interview with him; he comes across as not just reasonable, but smart and compassionate. The guy got his own—and then immediately started working to help others, raising money for families in need and organizing blood donation drives.
I’m not sure what makes him a Republican; I’m sure I would disagree with him on some issues. And even if he had voted for McCain and planned to vote for Romney, I feel like I would still really like this guy. He’s what you wish all, or even most Republicans could be like—and, for that matter, what more Democrats should be like as well.
The whole “you didn’t build [all] that” crapola is a very scary attempt at outright lying by the conservative propaganda machinery to slam Obama, just like they lied about Feingold voting to cut Medicare when he voted for PPACA in 2010.
The current Republican party is really the party of bullshit. The nation finally got tired of their lies in 2006 but for some reason they crawled back in 2010.
It truly boggles my mind that anyone who’s not single-issue pro-life, pro-neocon, pro-plutocracy, pro-theocracy, anti-union, anti-minority, anti-feminist, pro-gun, pro-global warming, anti-gay would vote for Romney/Ryan.
well, I guess that long list is why these clowns are still in this . . .
http://electoral-vote.com
shows 332-206, but FL, WI, IA are too close to call, and giving them to Romney/Ryan knocks Obama down to 287, just 18 EVs away from the House deciding the election.
OH has 18 EVs . . . gah.