, Columnist
Obama's Self-Serving Fictions Exposed
The president's tales of Republican "obstructionism" twist the facts.
The Republicans started it.
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Barack Obama is at it again, portraying the partisan battles of his presidency as entirely the result of pigheaded obstructionism by the Republicans -- and twisting the truth to propel the narrative.
In an interview with New York magazine, Obama has returned to one of his favorite stories about the start of his first term. As he tells it, he had expected congressional Republicans to work with him on a stimulus bill. On his way to talk to them he was startled to find that John Boehner, then the leader of the House Republicans, had put out a press release opposing the bill. This is when Obama realized, he says, that Republicans were going to oppose him on whatever he did.