Imagine if some Democrat, say Sen. Harry Reid, had made a statement like this in 2003 — “The single most important thing we want to achieve is to make President Bush a one-term president”? Rush Limbaugh would still be screaming treason and the cabal of cable TV connivers known as Fox News would still be featuring a daily hate segment condemning the Dems for indulging in politics during a time of war. (Indeed, some conservatives did do this when Junior Bush was president.) “How dare the selfish Democrats ignore the millions of Americans in need and our economic stability just so they can focus on defeating President Bush? It’s despicable and unAmerican, especially while we have troops in the field! Have they no shame, these traitors?!” Of course, the loyal stewards of the GOP message in the mass media would be echoing this nonsense, falsely appalled and demanding a denunciation from every officeholder with a ‘D’ after their name from senator to dog-catcher. But, as veterans of the political wars know, the media rules are different for Republicans.
“The Republicans seem to believe that if they tank the economy, they will be able to take down Obama and then rule over the ruins. Back in 2010, Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell declared that ‘the single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.’ And the single best way to defeat Obama is to sabotage the economy.
“But there’s just one problem with that strategy: the Republicans have no choice but to pursue it in broad daylight. And the trouble is, if they kill Obama’s middle-class tax cut, and Obama’s American Jobs Act, and his extension of unemployment benefits, and everything else he’s advocating to revive the economy, then fair-minded voters will likely blame the Republicans, and not the president, for the catastrophic results.”
— Paul Begala, “How Rush Limbaugh Helped Hand the Election to Obama,” Newsweek, Dec. 12, 2011.