Punitive, crude, pain-bringing...

Punitive, crude, pain-bringing...  Yup, that about sums it up.  Peggy Noonan:

The Democratic mistake is the punitive, crude, pain-bringing shutting down of things that everyone knows don’t have to be shut down—the World War II memorial, the Iwo Jima memorial, parks, landmarks, etc. All this is part of a strategic decision to cause and ratchet up pain for normal citizens. That pain, the White House thinks, will make people hate the shutdown and therefore make them hate the Republicans who summoned it.

It is a mistake.

First, everyone knows it is the federal government that’s doing it, and the chief executive officer of that government is the president. If he didn’t want it to happen he could make it not happen. Every informed voter knows why the White House is doing it. Which means every informed voter knows they are being abused by the administration in order to make them hate that administration’s political foes.

Just last night, Debbie and I were commenting about our surprise that this most recently Obamanation managed to catch so much negative attention, when any number of previous scandals, incompetence, and outrages did not.  What's the difference this time?  I think Noonan may be onto it: unlike the earlier instances, this time it has been quite evident to damn near everyone (not just those paying attention) that the Obama administration's actions are unnecessary pain being inflicted for perceived political gain.  Like Dolores Umbridge and her blood-sucking punishment quill...