I would say "I hope he is unable to pass his platform". The president does alot of things other than this that I hope he succeeds at, such as heading the military.
And is that not just going out of your way to find a politce and PC way of saying something for fear of people twisting your words? Is "unalbe to pass" not just a nice way to say "Fail" at passing his platform? And if you just spent some time directly prior to, directly after, and days and days before hand, harping on his POLICIES or in the case you use his "platform" is it so horrible if you don't have a qualifier of what you mean.
If I sit here and go, completely in general, "I Hope Obama Fails" okay, there's a lot of ways to take that. I could understand maybe thinking I just want everything he does to go wrong in any way because all I said is I want him to fail and you have no other context. However If I sit here and go "You know, I truly feel Obama's been bad for this country. I hope he doesn't get re-elected. I hate the direction he's taken us. Every policy he puts forth is damaging to us. We can't take 4 more years about this. A new election is coming up. I hope Obama fails". Does that mean I want the country to fail because I didn't specifically add onto that statement " at getting elected in 2012" or does it mean I'm relying on the context of everything I've said and done before it to make it obvious to those actually taking the time to listen to understand what it relates to.
If you're talking specifically about his policies, talking specifically about why you think those policies are harmful to this country, talking specifically how you are opposed to the policies that a person is trying to pass, and then say "You hope he fails" how, in all holy hell, does one conclude that somehow that context doesn't matter and it should be all inclusive.
Is Rush Limbaugh hoping Obama jabs himself in the eye in the mornings with his tooth brush failing to brush his teeth, since apparently saying he "wants him to fail" in the context of talking about his policies = wants him to fail at everything.
Is Rush Limbaugh hoping Obama turns his daughters into strippers through bad parenting, since apparently saying he "wants him to fail" in the context of talking about his policies = wants him to fail at everything.
Is Rush Limbaugh hoping Obama knocks up his wife here shortly because he failed to put on the condom properly, since apparently saying he "wants him to fail" in the context of talking about his policies = wants him to fail at everything.
I'm not going to sit here and say Limbaugh couldn't have parsed it in a better way, he definitely could've. I also have no doubt as soon as some whacked out liberal hackjob website that's no better than he is took it out of context and started making it a big issue it just made him MORE likely to continue to parse it that way just to further piss them off because he knew what he really meant, and those actually listening to the context knew what he really meant, and he enjoys pissing those types off.
But its
ridiculous to imply that if you dare use the term "fail" in regards to a President when talking about said president in the context of his policies that somehow that equates to you being an unpatriotic person that wants all of America to fail. And just because you pretty it up with more tactful and PC terminology doens't change the fact that saying "I hope he fails" in the context of his policies is no different in meaning than saying "I hope he is unable to pass his platform".
Being unable to do something is failing to do it. A platform is a group of policies. Someone failing at enacting their policies is the same as someone unable to pass their platform.