Obama 'Don't Get No Respect'

Like the comedian Rodney Dangerfield, President Barack Obama "don't get no respect."

His notable accomplishments are overlooked or quickly forgotten. Obama led successful fights for middle class tax cuts, credit card reform, fair pay for women (the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act), Wall Street Reform, a new nuclear arms control agreement with Russia, reforms in student lending, the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell," and increases in gas mileage standards.

More than just ignoring his accomplishments, Republicans claim that Obama does nothing right.

Most recently, they blamed him for taking too much vacation time. So far, Obama has taken 61 vacation days after 31 months in office. At this point in their presidencies, George W. Bush had spent 180 days on vacation, and Ronald Reagan had taken 112 vacation days.

"Republicans in Congress are expressing outrage over the president's ten-day vacation,” Chris Weigant wrote in the Huffington Post on Aug. 20. “Of course, it was rather hard to reach most of these members of Congress, since they are all off enjoying their own five-week-long vacation. By the time they return to Washington in September, Congress will have taken more vacation time this year alone than Obama has for his entire term."

So, it came as no surprise that Obama was given little credit by Republicans when his plan for American involvement in the Libyan civil war proved successful; with American help, the rebels chased dictator Moammar Gadhafi from power without a single U.S. casualty.

E.J. Dionne noted in the Washington Post on Aug. 24 that it’s “remarkable how reluctant Obama's opponents are to acknowledge that despite all the predictions that his policy of limited engagement could never work, it actually did."

Republican criticisms fell into two camps.

Some said Obama's response was too little and too late to do any good. GOP presidential candidates Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, and ex-candidate Tim Pawlenty, as well as Sen. Lindsey Graham and Sen. John McCain all held this view.

McCain and Graham, in particular, continued to pout following Obama's success, noting petulantly, "we regret that this success was so long in coming due to the failure of the United States to employ the full weight of our air power."

Yes, the victory in Libya took a full six months, a much shorter time than our continuing eight-year military involvement in Iraq, which both McCain and Graham strongly support.

Other Republicans said that we shouldn't get involved in Libya, and should just leave dictator Gadhafi in power.

Among them were Sen. Richard Lugar, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, presidential candidate Jon Huntsman, and U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann.

Have Republicans learned their lesson? Will they give Obama credit where credit is due?

Not likely from a party whose No. 1 priority, according to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, is to make sure that Obama is a one-term president.

Attempts by Obama to create jobs will provide Republicans with their next opportunity to obstruct and denigrate him. According to Weigant, "Right after Labor Day, Obama will announce a new jobs plan that he wants Congress to pass. Congress will refuse to do so… It should be noted that this script is going to play out exactly the same no matter what the plan contains.

 “It really doesn't matter what is in Obama's plan because the House is never going to give Obama a big political victory by passing it. Obama's plan could consist solely of hiring millions of people to erect gigantic statues and memorials to Ronald Reagan in every single town in America and pay for it all by levying a steep tax on abortions, and the Republicans in the House would still refuse to pass it."

That's what happens when a political party, in this case the Republican Party, cares more about attaining political power than it does the well being of the nation.

And what is particularly galling is that Republicans pride themselves on being patriots.

Some patriots.