re: #297 John Neverbend

ODS comes from a different source, but BDS is more chronic (almost by definition, as Bush was in office far longer than Obama has been). I would not agree that ODS has surpassed BDS. VDH is talking about critics of Obama, not those who hate him. The only Obama critics with whom I’m personally acquainted are certainly not racists.

After 9/11, Bush had 90% approval. It started shrinking when the war in Iraq didn’t go the way we were told it would (remember Rumsfeld: “Could be six days, six weeks, I doubt it will be six months.”). Bush bet his entire presidency on that war, and as it lost favor so did he. Add in Terry Schiavo and Katrina, and the Patriot Act, and trying to privatize Social Security, and BDS was clearly a reaction to policies. It didn’t reach fever pitch until he’d been in office quite some time.

Obama had enough death threats to warrant Secret Service protection starting eight months before the Iowa caucus.

If it’s not racism, to what do you attribute that hatred?