Obama and the ‘enemies list’
Is the Obama White House playing dirty in a Nixon-like fight against Fox News and other critics?
Is it going to far too accuse Barack Obama of creating a Nixonian 'enemies list?
(Retna Ltd./Corbis/Patsy Lynch, Bettmann)
An "uneasy" Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) has warned the president to stop channeling Richard Nixon’s paranoid administration, comparing the White House’s recent pushback against Fox News, the Chamber of Commerce, and Wall Street to "street brawling." (Watch highlights from Alexander's Senate speech.) Is the comparison ridiculous—or resonant?
Nixon was much worse: The Nixon-Obama comparison is “insane,” says Steve Benen in Washington Monthly. Obama’s team has made a few mild, justified attacks. Tricky Dick took revenge on an "actual enemies list" by spying on his foes and rifling through their tax and medical records. As Alexander would have it, Obama is stooping to that level merely by declining to "lose every fight."
"Defining Nixon Down"
Obama’s no Nixon, but he is overreacting: "Okay, so Alexander went too far in suggesting that Obama was drafting an ‘enemies list,’" says Debra Saunders in the San Francisco Chronicle. The White House is certainly free to criticize opponents such as Fox News, but so, too, are pundits "free to mock the administration's risible attempts to dress up its thin-skinned ways as love for unbiased reportage."
"The real flaw: Fox is a no-fawn zone"
Overreacting? Unlike Nixon’s, Obama’s targets deserve it: Obama’s so-called enemies are America’s enemies, too, says Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter, quoted in Politico. He’s attacking organizations that stand in the way of health care and financial reform, warning "advocates of greed—instead of the greater good—that they no longer have public legitimacy."
"Is Obama’s Offensive Against Critics Overdue or Overdone?"
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193 Comments
Posted by alberto, Thursday, October 22, 2009, 12:07 pm there needs to be a way to flag this typo of commentary from idiots that do not respect freedom of speech. THE WEEK MUST ADD flagging to this blog
Posted by Thom in Maryland, Thursday, October 22, 2009, 12:16 pm Concur with Alberto. Please delete the jackass comments by the jackass obiwan.. Now, about Fox it's not News. Murdoch's Fox News is to broadcast journalism what the National Inquirer is to print journalismlies printed in large font loud to sell gossip, opinion and slander to the ingnorant masses. Anyone who believe they are fair and balanced is an uninformed wingnut. Sadly, those folks think they are being informed by watching this nonsense. Teabags? socialism? birthers? Please turn it off. Cronkite Murrow are rolling over ...
Posted by hydrogen barackside, Thursday, October 22, 2009, 12:19 pm Flagging commentary is censorship. Do you really want to go here? No, you should be able to say anything about anyone. This means if you look like an idiot on the town square podium, then you are looking like the idiot!Let him be.
Posted by Howard, Thursday, October 22, 2009, 12:22 pm During the Bush administration the writers of such commentary would have been hounded down by the Justice Department Dept of Homeland Security. The poster can thank his lucky stars that Obama is in office, otherwise he would be in prison by now. This Week should certainly take such offensive and abusive language off of their public website.
Posted by Zoila, Thursday, October 22, 2009, 12:31 pm I am neither here nor there, but it is a shame to read that Obama's enemies are America's enemies too. WHY? because the right wing media dares to speak up? NOT everyone will agree with everyone, and this is the beauty of our country. Different opinions can be expressed and heard, that is freedom of speech and it works both ways So, suck it up, and deal with it.There is never too far for the media they have put our country at risk many times in the name of the truth so now let conservatives speak, criticize compare it's their right.
Posted by ben gunn, Thursday, October 22, 2009, 12:38 pm An insane comparison?OK Why don't you ask 'Joe the Plummer' how he felt about his medical, insurance, and tax records being accessed during the election by campaign proxies?The NixonObama comparison is insane, says Steve Benen in Washington Monthly. Tricky Dick took revenge on an actual enemies list by spying on his foes and rifling through their tax and medical records.
Posted by StraightTalker, Thursday, October 22, 2009, 12:38 pm All freedom must be accompanied by responsibility and this shows intellectual maturity. While I do believe he Barak is too reactionary, he too has a right to an opinion and to speak. Let's not forget that. And doesn't FOX have a strong leaning to Republicans?
Posted by john, Thursday, October 22, 2009, 12:40 pm Its almost impossible to fathom the utter inanity of everyone calling Fox News biased while excusing every other socalled news provider as simply presenting the unvarnished truth. Take, for instance, Chris Matthews of MSNBC who stated in 2008 that he has made a commitment to covering politics in a liberal way. How is it that Fox gets derided for having a perspective while the other side gets a free pass?
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