I think you would see this level of opposition if the Democrats had elected a white guy, Bobert. What the Republicans are up to is what they are always up to...trying to destroy the Democratic presidency. It was the same when Clinton was president. It's the mirror image, of course, of what Democrats do when there's a Republican president...they try to destroy the Republican presidency.

The fact that Obama is "black" is convenient for Republican idealogues simply because that's one more thing that they can use to scare a certain part of their constituency...but it's not the real reason they are out to destroy him. The real reason is merely that he's a Democrat. The fact that he's "black" just gives them one more target to fire at, that's all. If he was unmarried, they'd have another. If he was a known atheist, they'd have another. If he was gay, they'd have yet another! ;-) (But that ain't gonna happen in US politics for some time yet, in my opinion.)

Look, any excuse will do, okay? The primary purpose of the Republican Party is to destroy the Democratic Party and gain power. The primary purpose of the Democratic Party is to destroy the Republican Party and gain power.

This does not help the country, simply because, as Lincoln said: "A house divided against itself cannot stand." !!!!

The USA is a house permanently and bitterly divided against itself by a bipartisan divide that has gone terminally mad, in my opinion, and that's why I would prefer to see both of those parties abolished for good, no more parties created in their place, simply a large slate of independent candidates running for office in every riding, and a national legislature formed from those candidates elected...and not a divided legislature! A single body of many individuals with many different ideas.

This would be a very different system, however, from the present one, and I have no expectation at all that it will happen anytime in the near future. There's too big an investment in maintaining the status quo, and most people don't even realize that there are any alternatives to it.....just as most people didn't realize a few hundred years ago that there was any alternative to rule by hereditary monarchs. They'd grown up with it, they believed in it implicitly, they were loyal to it, they thought it was the only way to go, and they fought in its defense without question. Such is the case now with our party-driven divisive political systems. People take them for granted. They think it's the only way to go.