[Platapus]

First of all, as other posters have posted, there is a difference between disagreeing/disapproving of a president and hating/ridiculing him.

Personally, I disapproved of President Bush, but I never hated him, nor did I approve of the ridicule.

While ridiculing of presidents have been around since Washington, it has gotten more apparent since the advent of the Internet Tubes, in my opinion. It has become more socially acceptable to be disrespectful of our president.

I remember being present during political discussions with my parent's adult friends in the 70's. While there was disagreement on what the president was doing, when the conversation started to drift toward ridiculing the President, the group socially self-policed itself.

It is this self-policing that is absent these days. It started a little with George H. W. Bush but really took flight with Clinton. Clinton was the first president in my memory who was vilified before taking office. The press violated their tradition of "100 days".

Then when G W Bush came in office, entire industries dedicated to the ridicule of the president came in to existence. Bumper stickers, books (bushisms), calenders, count-down counters. This was a multi-million dollar industry and the public loved it. It became "trendy" to openly ridicule the president outside of any specific issue. It became a social habit in this country.

When Obama came in, This industry did not want to go away and the public liked this social habit. If you remember, immediately after the election, there were already on the market Obama countdown timers (all they did was put an Obama sticker and reprogram the Bush timer) and all sorts of merchandise all two months before he even took the oath.

To stop this, two things have to happen

1. The industry of presidential ridicule must become unprofitable.
2. It must become socially unacceptable to ridicule the president.

Only the citizens of this country have the power to implement these changes. The problem is that some people are simply making too much money in the industry and other people are having too much fun ridiculing the president.

It would be nice if the media would take some responsibility, but relying on the media for social responsibility is a fantasy.

It is my sad prediction that any future president regardless of their political party or their platform will be subject to this ridicule industry. It has become a most profitable habit