Caddell, Schoen: Obama Trying to ‘Obliterate’ Republican Party

Two prominent Democratic pollsters — Patrick Caddell and Doug Schoen — are criticizing President Barack Obama as harshly as any Republican.

Obama is trying to destroy the Republican Party by dividing Americans, the two write on Politico. Caddell was President Jimmy Carter’s pollster, while Schoen served that role for President Bill Clinton.

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The president’s protestations about the horror that will result from the automatic spending cuts (sequester) that began today aren’t above board, they write in Politico.

“The president is obviously going all-out — but not to avoid the $85 billion in spending cuts,” Caddell and Schoen say. “Obama doesn’t want to make a deal with Republicans. His fear-mongering is part of a concerted plan that extends far beyond the sequester crisis: to obliterate the Republican Party as a viable force in American political life.”

And they offer a scathing denunciation for how Obama is going about it. “His self-righteous rhetoric obscures a bitter truth: Obama is not trying to unite the country,” the duo writes.

“He’s waging a class-based battle for political gain. His goal is to win back the House for Democrats in 2014, giving him a united Congress for his last two years in office and allowing him to pursue the most expansive government in American history.”