President Barack Obama has proven to be a “uniter not a divider” on Syria — but not in the way he would like.
The president has united isolationist libertarian Republicans and anti-war Democratic liberals around opposing a military strike against Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, who is accused of using chemical weapons on his own people. And some on the far left and far right now also seem united in raising the “i” word: impeachment, should Obama decide to go into Syria without congressional approval.
In fact, Syria is accentuating divisions in each party to the extent that positions can’t be said to reflect a consistent partisan line. Mediaite listed some of the positions — a study in partisan and ideological diversity. No: Chris Mathews, Liz Cheney, Dennis Kucinich, Mary Matalin, Laura Ingraham, and John Bolton. Yes: John Boehner, Eric Cantor, and Hillary Clinton. Unsure, but sounds like no: Charlie Rangel. And changing abruptly — depending on the day of the week — Arizona Sen. John McCain.
The greatest contradictions and political bile are, unsurprisingly, from Republicans…
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.