Without going into a long story about the recent theatrics in Washington DC, it's all because American wants to see a black president fail. They will do all they can to make him a one term president, even if it bring the whole of USA down on it's knees. All collateral damage?
First and foremost, it's not all of America that wants to see President Obama fail, but those that do, want very badly for him to fail.
While there may be a racial component to some of this, it would be more accurate to say that America's Republican Party would like to see the President, a member of the Democratic Party, fail. The fact that the President is black is, at most, secondary to partisan politics and ideology.
Reference the partial shutdown of the FAA, it's political gamesmanship. many have referred to it as "hostage taking". In a nutshell, Republican Congressman John Mica, Chairman of the Transportation Committee has crafted the reauthorization bill in such a manner as to make it unpalatable to Democrats, by including a number of provisions to advance his own agenda.
Many of you may be familar with Don Brown, who used to write about safety for AvWeb. He now has a personal blog, "Get the Flick", and he frequently writes about these issues.
One recent entry on the subject:
http://gettheflick.********.com/2011...from-mica.html
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Discovered on post preview: Hmmm. PPrune software apparently auto-censors a portion of that link. A working link can be found on R Doug Wicker's blog, linked below.)
Probably not as well known, several other bloggers have recently posted on this situation as well. Here is one:
Further Down the Rabbit Hole | Martinlady's View Through the Looking Glass
This one, by R. Doug Wicker explains the situation in pretty minute detail:
Can This Economy Take a 90,000-Job Hit? | R. Doug Wicker
I hope that provides some insight....