He probably wished later he had used a different
word, but last month the President made reference to “the crazies.”
According to Associated Press,
At a Democratic fundraiser
Monday night [Aug. 24] in Nevada, Obama declared himself ready for the
challenges he faces this fall in dealing with a Republican Congress that
disagrees with him on the budget, energy policy, education and much more.
Obama said that as he’d ridden to the fundraiser with Senate
Democratic leader Harry Reid, they’d done some reminiscing and spent some time
“figuring out how we are going to deal with the crazies in terms of managing
some problems.”
He
didn’t identify exactly who the two of them had defined as “crazies.”
Although he was by no means the only
one to do so, Missouri 6th District Representative Sam Graves took it personal,
for he thought the President was referring to those who opposed the Iran
nuclear deal.
In his September 14 email to his
constituents (of which I am one), Rep. Graves wrote, “A few weeks ago,
President Obama said that those of us who oppose his Iran deal are ‘crazies.’
What’s actually crazy is that our President trusts Iran with a nuclear weapon.”
Well,
the opponents of Iran deal may or may not have been who the President had in
mind, but that is not what he said. But it is clear, and disturbing, what Rep.
Graves said.
After
many months of principled diplomacy, the P5+1 — the United States, the United
Kingdom, France, China, Russia and Germany — along with the European Union,
have achieved a long-term comprehensive nuclear deal with Iran that will
verifiably prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon and ensure that Iran’s
nuclear program will be exclusively peaceful going forward.
So, on what basis does Rep. Graves,
and his many Republican cohorts in Congress, say that the President trusts Iran
with a nuclear weapon?
And why would we think that a farm
boy from northwest Missouri (as I am also) knows more about this deal than the
President, the Secretary of State, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, the
Chancellor of Germany, and the presidents of China, France, and Russia?
In addition, the Iran nuclear deal
has been praised by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as well as 29 of “the world’s most knowledgeable experts
in the fields of nuclear weapons and arms control” (according to the
New York Times).
Of course, maybe “the crazies” the President had in
mind are those, such as Sen. Ted Cruz, who (again) are threatening to shut the
government down next month—this time because of opposition to Planned
Parenthood.
Cruz and most of the Republican presidential
contenders, especially Carly Fiorina, are so opposed to Planned Parenthood because
of their opposition to abortion.
But according to Planned Parenthood’s 2013-14
financial report, more than 95% of their expenditures went for STD/STI testing
and treatment, contraception, cancer screening and prevention, and other health
services.
Three per cent of their expenditures went for
abortion services, but none of the funding for that came from the
federal government.
 |
| Planned Parenthood's 2013-14 Financial Report |
So maybe those who want to shut down the government
over this issue can be thought of as “the crazies.”
Or, perhaps the President was thinking of those who
still, after all these years, think that he is a Muslim and not born in
America. According to a recent poll, 29% of the
U.S. population—including 43% of Republicans and 54% of Trump
supporters—believe Obama is a Muslim.
There is, sadly, no shortage of “the crazies.”
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