MICHAEL GOODWIN: The President of Fear & Smear By Michael Goodwin Published October 13, 2010 | New York Post Print Email Share Comments (61) Text Size Barack Obama's shameful innuendo that the United States Chamber of Commerce might be using "foreign money" has set a new low standard for the presidency. That the White House admits he has no proof means he is asking opponents, "When did you stop beating your wife?"
It's a cheap shot that will cost the president dearly in the area where he can least afford it: his reputation. Already repudiated for his disastrous policies, his turn to rancid fearmongering, even when he knows his claims are false, shows a character defect.
It is also a sudden departure from his "post-American" view of the world. He famously described himself as a "Citizen of the World," but now uses "foreign" as a synonym for "corrupt."
As ABC's Jake Tapper noted, the president's demand that the chamber "prove" it's not using foreign money is like the "birthers" demanding Obama prove he was born in America. Touché.
Obama got into political straits because he ignored public will on everything from bailouts to taxes to health care. Now he tries to get out by raising the specter of a foreign bogeyman.
The old advice about the best way out of a hole is to stop digging should apply. Yet good advice is wasted on him.
The only solution is to give him a Congress that will stand for the American majority. That's the change we need now.
Michael Goodwin is a New York Post columnist and Fox News contributor. To read more from today's column, click here.
