Blaming President Obama

David Brooks' Friday column is much more reasonable than his Tuesday one (see below under "Wishful thinking").  His prescriptions for Pres. Obama are exactly what you'd expect from a moderate Republican -- he wants him to shift to the right, but not too much.  He wants him to "cut and replace," meaning not just destroy government, as some on the right would like, but build a smarter government.  I can agree with these prescriptions for the most part, but again, Mr. Brooks is blaming the President for problems that are not of his own making.  It is the Republicans who have framed this debate in such angry terms.  Most independent voters are siding with Republicans this year, and that is partly Pres. Obama's fault.  Perhaps he has not addressed conservative values the way Mr. Brooks describes.  He has also been smeared and lied about, which creates a sentiment out there that Pres. Obama is un-American, and to blame for many, many things.  As Mr. Brooks states, the President is not all-powerful.  Some people seem to have voted for Pres. Obama expecting him to work miracles, and have been disappointed that he has not single-handedly delivered jobs to them.  They also seem willing to forget that Republicans have obstructed the President from the beginning on, and have stymied many good ideas from the left.  Here's Mitch McConnell in a recent interview with the National Journal: "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president."  Now, if that's not obstructionism, I don't know what is.  The future Sen. Majority Leader (if Republicans win 10 seats in the Senate, as I predict they will) is saying his top priority is to make the President look bad so that he doesn't get reelected.  Then he'll attack him for not being bipartisan enough.  He says the first thing on his plate is "I believe we should extend all of the Bush tax cuts."  His goal is to make the President bow to his wishes, and to protect the wealth of the top 5% of taxpayers.  It just doesn't make sense to me that saving money for the rich is what the electorate seems to want most this year -- because that is what they will get if Republicans take control.