Quote (thesnipa @ 22 Aug 2018 05:11)

bit of an overstatement, although u may just not be stating everything for convenience of a shorter post. anti-Obamacare rhetoric was a part of it. but there was also crazy af conspiracy theories mudding the water about him putting in a muslim caliphate and not being a legitimate American. its hard to actually measure these thing, but I think the anti-black anti-muslim sentiments were notable. "Obama was the one who devided America" has reached buzzphrase status, and that sure as heck isn't an Obamacare thing. nor really his policy. it was about who he was, and who people said he was.

Quote (Thor123422 @ 22 Aug 2018 05:17)

Tax reform was virtually guaranteed and everybody knew it. Obamacare was far from guaranteed and was hotly debated for two full years. It took far more political capital to pass Obamacare than it did to pass Trump's tax reform.

Quote (Black XistenZ @ Aug 21 2018 09:20pm)

just for the record: I have always said that the polarization has been going on for a long time. Obama (and Trump, for that matter) added fuel to the fire, but the fire was already burning before he took office.

I actually think there were three effects in play at once in 2010:

- reversion to the mean, after the blue waves of 2006 and 2008.
- backlash against obama's policies.
- backlash against obama's identity and what he stood for.

it's just... I think it's intellectually dishonest to blame all the huge backlash that he faced in 2010 on just one of these items. "it was all because of the racists and the braindead nutjobs" is the most convenient explanation of 2010 for liberals, but blaming all of the red wave on just this point is not convincing. significant chunks of the electorate did not like the policy direction of Obama's early presidency.

Quote (Black XistenZ @ Aug 21 2018 09:22pm)

if tax reform was virtually guaranteed, why was it so hard for the GOP to barely, in a last-ditch effort, pass it?

Quote (EndlessSky @ Aug 21 2018 11:02pm)

[URL=http://thefederalist.com/2017/04/25/running-numbers-mortality-rates-suggests-obamacare-killing-people/]http://thefederalist.com/2017/04/25/running-numbers-mortality-rates-suggests-obamacare-killing-people/[/URL]

Quote (thesnipa @ 22 Aug 2018 05:22)

agreed entirely. the red guys wanna blame it on Obamacare, and the blue guys on "America did a racism"... I didn't think u were in the red camp. to add to it midterms are always harder on presidents, but that goes with reversion to the mean. Obama didn't do a great job at maintaining support that he got in 2008

Quote (Black XistenZ @ Aug 21 2018 11:22pm)

if tax reform was virtually guaranteed, why was it so hard for the GOP to barely, in a last-ditch effort, pass it?

Quote (ThatAlex @ Aug 21 2018 08:21pm)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r04VtZ_Vg2U

Start at 51:30. End at 52:08

I can't tell if this is true genius or idiocy...either way, I'm impressed with his rhetoric here. Trump is great at rallies.

Quote (Black XistenZ @ Aug 21 2018 09:27pm)

democrats have historically always struggled more than the GOP in midterm years. so it's not entirely on Obama. but then again... the Democratic party really atrophied on the local and state level during his presidency.

Quote (Horford @ 22 Aug 2018 05:28)

because it was a completely partisan reform? derp

Quote (Beowulf @ 22 Aug 2018 05:28)

I wonder if trump has ever cooked anything for himself in his entire life

we know he hasn't been to a grocery store so it's not looking great already