Our Uniter-in-Chief?

From "I won"--said to House Republicans who also won--to Republicans can come along but he doesn't want them to talk much, to Republicans having to "sit in the back" of the bus, to "We're gonna punish our enemies and we're gonna reward our friends", President Obama is the very antithesis of the uniter he claimed to be during the election. Frankly, I find his relentless attacks on anyone who disagrees with him to be unpresidential at least, dangerous at most. Charles Krauthammer nails it:

This is how the great post-partisan, post-racial, New Politics presidency ends - not with a bang, not with a whimper, but with a desperate election-eve plea for ethnic retribution.

That type of behavior may work on the streets of Chicago, but I still hold out hope that it won't work across America.

Update, 10/31/10: From the Washington Post:

We write in sadness as traditional liberal Democrats who believe in inclusion. Like many Americans, we had hoped that Obama would maintain the spirit in which he campaigned. Instead, since taking office, he has pitted group against group for short-term political gain that is exacerbating the divisions in our country and weakening our national identity.The culture of attack politics and demonization risks compromising our ability to address our most important issues - and the stature of our nation's highest office.

Indeed, Obama is conducting himself in a way alarmingly reminiscent of Nixon's role in the disastrous 1970 midterm campaign. No president has been so persistently personal in his attacks as Obama throughout the fall. He has regularly attacked his predecessor, the House minority leader and - directly from the stump - candidates running for offices below his own. He has criticized the American people suggesting that they are "reacting just to fear" and faulted his own base for "sitting on their hands complaining."

With the country beset by economic and other problems, it is incendiary that the president is not offering a higher vision for the nation but has instead chosen a strategy of rank division. This is an attempt to distract from the perceived failures of his administration. On issue after issue this administration has acted in ways that are weakening the office of the president.

Before you attack that piece, take a look who the authors of it are. If you don't recognize the names, I'll quote again from the column and let the authors themselves tell you about one of them: "one of us was the youngest member of Nixon's enemies list".