Obama Deserves Respect as Country's President

It has disturbed me seeing how many currently in opposition to President Obama have spewed what is essentially a message of hatred toward this gentle, public-minded man who has consistently conducted himself with a degree of grace and dignity that is truly remarkable. The critics who bother me the most are those who claim that Obama's election was illegitimate, that he either was born outside of the U.S. or that something in the process itself unfairly manipulated people into voting for him.

I had heard the same sort of stuff about George W. Bush, with the notion that he had been able to unfairly manipulate the process to claim two close election victories in 2000 and 2004. And that those who voted for his reelection in 2004 were somehow flimflammed into doing so.

What nonsense. In both 2000 and 2004, both Republicans and Democrats did whatever they could to influence the election outcome, including the intense no-holds-barred legal struggles in Florida following the 2000 election. I remember listening to Air America in 2006, hearing program hosts regularly claiming that Bush stole both the 2000 and 2004 elections.

I always recognized the election results of 2000, 2004, and 2008. When Bush was president, he was MY president as well as president of those who voted for him. And while he pursued a political agenda that I often disagreed with (often very strongly), I felt then and feel now that he understood that he, too, was everyone's president, not just his supporters'. In the same vein I feel that Barack Obama, while pursuing his particular political agenda, also sees himself as the entire country's president.

If only his opponents would just respect him for that and that he is our legitimately elected president, I would be much more willing to listen to their ideas. Hearing some of the anti-Bush venom being pushed back in the Air America days did nothing to predispose me toward their opinions, instead only discrediting them.