Parker on Obama vs. Rush

Excerpts from syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker in the C-J...

Two impressions emerge from President Barack Obama's first week in office:

Partisanship has reached a tipping point when the new president is circling the fire hydrant with a conservative talk-radio personality. And, the new president is sounding an awful lot like the old one....

Obama and Bush each mistakenly assumed that his election was a national mandate for his policies, rather than a rejection of alternatives....

If Obama had a mandate at all, it was to heal the divisions that have plagued politics for so long. No more partisan bickering, he promised, though there's only about a smirk's difference between Obama and Bush, stylistically. While one is bring-'em-on confrontational and the other a passive-aggressive Mr. Cool, both reveal a staggering sense of personal empowerment.

Obama was cool even when, at that same GOP meeting, he urged Republicans to stop listening to Rush Limbaugh....

Mr. President, but you've been baited by none other than the Master Fisherman. Limbaugh tossed you a lure and you chomped....

Then, Parker makes a point-- wonderfully-- that I've been making as well. If it weren't so serious, it'd be side-splittingly funny to hear the GOP complain about Obama's big government plans so far!

There's plenty to criticize, but shouting socialism in a crowded panic room is laughable under the circumstances. Bush gave Nanny a tenured position in Washington with his Medicare bill, farm subsidies and public education spending. It was under the GOP's watch that the nationalization of America's banking and insurance programs began....

If Obama wants to rumble, he's got an eager foe in Limbaugh. But if he really wants to win, he might take a page from his predecessor's playbook: Never dignify your enemies with recognition.