During the George W. Bush administration, conservatives used to complain about liberals being struck with BDS, a/ka/ Bush Derangement Syndrome, a term invented by the Washington Post's Charles Krauthammer. Liberals who would blame the former president for the 9/11 attacks, for instance, were viewed as BDS victims.
Similarly, conservatives in recent years have shown symptoms of Obama Derangement Syndrome — though the (still) persistent questions about whether he is Muslim seem to reflect something worse than derangement.
We've certainly seen a version of ODS playing out in the five days since Obama gave his only comment in the Trayvon Martin case. Last Friday the president said that if he had a son, "he'd look like Trayvon." Many listeners were moved by the comment, with several news sources praising the commander-in-chief for his statements.
Not Newt Gingrich, who went off the deep end by calling the remarks "disgraceful." But then again this is the same man who 18 years ago blamed liberals for Susan Smith going nuts and drowning her two children in South Carolina. Gingrich said the only way to avoid future such incidents was “to vote Republican.”
