Take Him To Your Leader

It's not surprising that South Carolina GOP Sen. Jim DeMint has a pretty dismal opinion about President Obama, but this statement is just bizarre.

Arch-conservative Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) said Thursday that President Barack Obama should not be considered the leader of the United States.


"This whole idea that the President is the leader of our country is a mistake," DeMint said during a speech to the Washington, DC chapter of the Federalist Society, according to Talking Points Memo.

Described by some as the most conservative member of the Senate, DeMint came to fame in 2009 when he said in a leaked private conversation that defeat on health care will be Obama's "Waterloo." He insisted Thursday that leadership should occur at the local level, not the national level.

"Leadership starts in the homes in the communities, in businesses, in churches," he said. "I've lived in a community and I know where the leaders are and it's not in Washington. And this pretense that he's our nation's leader... I'm not just talking about Obama, I'm talking about any President."

"A candidate who goes out and makes all these promises about what he's going to do in all areas of our society needs to be removed from consideration."

After implying that the president has overreached in his desire to reform American society, DeMint curiously claimed Obama isn't going to lead and therefore should be replaced.

"It's pretty clear this President is not going to lead," he said. "We've got to replace this President."

There are a couple ways to parse DeMint's..."logic" here.

One, after the Bush years, the guy just doesn't respect the office of President at all anymore, and figures Obama is a puppet President like Bush was, but that doesn't explain DeMint saying on one hand the notion that the President is leader of the country is hogwash, and on the other hand going after Obama for not showing leadership.

Two, this is a dog whistle to the Birthers with all the subtlety of a fireworks explosion in a nitroglycerin factory.  Obama isn't DeMint's president, and Obama needs to be replaced.  Still doesn't explain the disdain for the office itself.

Three, DeMint is trying to attack Obama outside of both sides of his mouth because he figures nobody will notice, he's just bashing Obama.

I'm going with three, myself.  Obama Derangement Syndrome is pretty awesome.