I find it curious how one group of Americans have a positive view of President Obama while another regards him to be a horrible president and bad for the country. What could possibly explain how presumably decent and rational people can have such a different perspective?
I think this divide can be explained by a difference in perspective. Going from left to right, what sort of perspective could explain the positive opinions that many on the left seem to have towards Obama. I can only see Obama as a good thing if I think about him and his actions as being in a vacuum and take America out of the scenario. Now I can look at spending money on social reforms as a pretty humanitarian act. Likewise, reforming health care so that everybody can have it, sounds pretty compassionate too. Even the way that Obama bows to foreign leaders almost seems to have a bit of charm in it's humility. This perspective requires that the focus be limited to Obama.
Obama critics are not judging Obama in a vacuum. They are viewing Obama in the context of America. He was elected as the country's leader, so it seems very relevant that Obama's performance is measured in terms of how it effects America.
Say, for example, you own a one of a kind Rolls Royce automobile and it is your prize possession - for which you sacrificed for decades working in order to afford. This car is in perfect mint condition with it's original pearl white paint job. Suppose you hire a driver for this car and on his first day on the job, after dropping you off at an appointment, the driver goes and gets the car painted black - his favorite color. If we just consider the driver in a vacuum, then there isn't much to blame. A driver's favorite color is black and he gets the car he's driving painted black. Obama supporters are looking at you, the irate owner of the car, wondering why the hell you have a problem with the color black - accusing you of of having some sort of problem with the color even. What's being discounted is the car - the focus is on the driver and not the car - which is the whole reason why the driver was hired in the first place - the whole reason that he's even a driver.
We hired Obama to drive and take care of a country with a culture, philosophy, and ideals already colored in. It's not really about what colors Obama is painting - it's that he is painting over the prize possession that we hired him to protect. We don't elect a president to invent us some new country. If we all had just migrated to the moon and needed a country found, then we might hire or elect someone to follow his vision of the perfect country and invent one for us - create a constitution.
Since Obama was elected to be President of America - not Europe, the world, or the moon - it seems reasonable that he be judged in the context of his effect on the country, his driving.
This still leaves the question - why does America not more significantly factor into the liberal's assessment of Obama? If you don't value America then why do you care - and how relevant is your opinion on the matter? If you want America repainted, you basically want your own new country; yet, instead of building, fighting for, and inventing your own - you want to hijack America foundation and paint over qualities that many find to be her most unique and special.
Obama is the bastard driver who has his feet up on your desk while he informs you that your car's being repainted to match his own favorite color.
