Derangement

Republican hatred of President Obama is so great that now they're criticizing him for killing terrorists. These guys have no shame at all, no capability of being embarrassed at the extent to which they'll contradict themselves in the blink of an eye to score some sort of hit, no matter how crazy.

First, Obama was soft on terror. His policies are too easy on terrorists. He doesn't say we're at war. He's ignoring the problem. He wants us to fail.

But wait: he's actually killing AND capturing terrorists at a higher rate than Dick Cheney could imagine in his wettest of dreams (sorry. That's an image no one should have to contemplate.) So, to the applause of the assembled partisans of no, this guy (author of the Patriot Act, no less) says Obama is killing too many. Really. To applause.

Here's the thing (and "things" aren't exactly the sort of thing that these people can comprehend): the guys being taken out are in remote areas. Which means you can't get there from here. You can't march in and take the guys, not without huge risk, not without being seen. So what would the crazies have us do? Leave them alone?

Moreover, there HAVE been several people captured in recent days. In cities. Where the possibility of surprise without being detected miles away exists. (By the way: the willingness of the Pakistani military to engage in this way is pretty much unprecedented. Great credit is due -- and won't be given, of course -- to the Obama administration [and to Richard Holbrooke, no doubt] for doing the diplomatic work to make it happen.)

And still Barack Obama, that Nazi, that dictator, that hater of all things American, that taker-away of our freedoms (question: which ones, exactly?) continues trying to find common ground. Still believes in partisanship. Still notes (did so again today) that we're all in this together.

For that, I don't know whether to admire him -- I'd have given up long ago -- or to despair of his future. Because there's no one on the other side who returns the favor. Not a damn one at CPAC, less than none in the tea pots; few if any elsewhere. These people want one thing and only one thing: complete failure of Obama's presidency, even if it means the complete failure of America. They'll say anything, no matter how absurd, in hopes a few more empty-headed haters will soak it up.

They will, of course.