The Rhetoric of Barack Obama - Dishonest Framing of Debate

Jonah Goldberg says [my emphases]:

As I noted last month during all the inauguration hype, Barack Obama is determined to cast himself as a pragmatist and anyone who disagrees with him an ideologue. . .   It is also a profoundly dishonest framing of debate because it assumes that liberals are reality based and empirical while conservatives are hidebound dogmatists and ideologues. Somehow being pro-choice is empirical, but being pro-life is dangerously ideological. Supporting the nationalization of the banks is pragmatic. Opposing such measures stems from a feverish loyalty to discredited ideas.

But most of all, it is an attempt to preempt good faith disagreement by declaring it out of bounds and illegitimate before the conversation even starts. When Barack Obama spoke of "bad habits" in Washington it was easy to take him to mean that it's a bad habit to disagree with him.  [more . . .]