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You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / Good News For People Who Enjoy Out-Of-Context Misrepresentation

Good News For People Who Enjoy Out-Of-Context Misrepresentation

by Elias Isquith|  July 26, 20121:34 pm| 23 Comments

This post is in: Domestic Politics, Media, Politics, Republican Stupidity

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Via Ed Kilgore, who cites it as evidence that we’re “entering a fact-free zone,” I see that Dave Weigel’s bored and desperate for copy enough to fisk the latest Republican attack video:

At this point, getting video clips of Obama from Republican campaigns is like getting an article pitch from Jayson Blair. It might tell a good story, but you need to run down the source and triple-check. Jim Geraghty points to our latest example, a rapid response video from the RNC that clips Obama’s speech from Oakland.

Just like we’ve tried their plan, we tried our plan — and it worked. That’s the difference. That’s the choice in this election.  That’s why I’m running for a second term.

Pretty stupid! As Geraghty points out, with a smorgasboard of links, the economy is still horrible three and a half years after Obama took office. But what was the rest of the quote?

I’ll cut out government spending that’s not working, that we can’t afford, but I’m also going to ask anybody making over $250,000 a year to go back to the tax rates they were paying under Bill Clinton, back when our economy created 23 million new jobs, the biggest budget surplus in history and everybody did well. Just like we’ve tried their plan, we tried our plan — and it worked. That’s the difference. That’s the choice in this election. That’s why I’m running for a second term.

What are the chances? Another radical Obama quote that’s just a clipped version of something all Democrats believe.

So almost immediately, Moe Lane of RedState (the dude who covered himself in glory by ridiculing Roger Ebert for having cancer),* was a-posting with the new video and needling the President like he were some kind of cancer-ridden loser. I’m sure the entire rightwing blogosphere has already jumped all over the video. That it’s a cut-and-dry misrepresentation of the President’s words doesn’t seem to matter. As I discovered in an earlier post, the actual veracity of a GOP quote of the President doesn’t matter; because even if Obama didn’t quite say what they’re saying he said, his comment nevertheless revealed his true ideology.

It’s been said before — and it’s a bit of an easy zinger, admittedly — but I’m always struck by how often movement conservatives end up sounding like unreconstructed Communists, the kind who were positive they understood their enemies’ motivations better than those contemptible bourgeois capitalists ever could. Obama is objectively anti-business owner, you see. Or, to take an example from an especially incoherent Reason blog post, he’s “objectively” not the most anti-gun President ever… except, y’know, basically he totally is:

So is Obama “the most anti-gun president in history,” as the NRA warned he would be four years ago? Objectively, no. …But his current rhetoric and his past support for highly restrictive laws, including the D.C. and Chicago gun bans that were overturned by the Supreme Court, suggest the NRA has a pretty good handle on what Obama would do if Americans were not so adamant about clinging to their guns.

Trust me, it all makes sense—but only if you’ve read your Burke.

 

*Update: Turns out Moe Lane and Caleb Howe are, um, technically different entities. My apologies; I was really messed-up on “Vodka shooters” when I wrote this post.

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23Comments

  1. 1.

    Rafer Janders

    July 26, 2012 at 1:41 pm

    suggest the NRA has a pretty good handle on what Obama would do if Americans were not so adamant about clinging to their guns.

    Right, because what Obama WOULD do cannot obviously be determined by what Obama actually HAS DONE as president for three and a half years.

    Simililarly, they have a pretty good handle on what I would to do Eva Mendes if Eva Mendes was not quite so adamant about clinging to her virtue.

  2. 2.

    NonyNony

    July 26, 2012 at 1:46 pm

    suggest the NRA has a pretty good handle on what Obama would do if Americans were not so adamant about clinging to their guns.

    So basically – if gun control were more popular, then Obama would be signing legislation for more gun control.

    Do I have that right? Because I’m not finding an interpretation here that isn’t ridiculous.

  3. 3.

    Brooklyn Michael

    July 26, 2012 at 1:48 pm

    So, wait….Reason is saying they are bitter clingers?

  4. 4.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    July 26, 2012 at 1:48 pm

    We were all talking politics in the Lawyer’s Lounge in court this morning, a bunch of solidly democratic lawyers and me (paralegal). We were having a lively discussion (about why any women, gays, blacks, hispanics etc., etc., would ever vote republican.) In comes another attorney who happens to be in a wheel chair, and has been most of his life. He opined that there was no difference between Romney and Obama. After a little prodding he said that “Obama was going to make us a Sochulist nation”. Again after prodding (from one of our more senior lawyers) he said that he hated Obamacare because it would mean rationing. Yet he could not articulate one single thing to back up either of his theories. Not one. It was just what he had read from forwarded e-mails and from watching Fox.

    I then went on a fifteen minute rant about how there is no such thing as rationing in Obamacare and more’s the point any kind of rationing in the NHS (which I am sure is where he was making the comparison). I told him about my 78 year old mother having heart surgery next month and he said “yes but is she the exception or the rule?” You can’t argue with someone who is so willfully blind.

  5. 5.

    Rafer Janders

    July 26, 2012 at 1:52 pm

    @NonyNony:

    Umm, yes. If the American people wanted something different, then Obama would oblige them.

    Which…doesn’t sound so sinister to me. But what do I know?

  6. 6.

    Ruckus

    July 26, 2012 at 1:54 pm

    @Litlebritdifrnt:
    So he has two major handicaps.

    Stupid and ignorant.

  7. 7.

    Libby Spencer

    July 26, 2012 at 1:56 pm

    Oh yikes. Sorry Elias. Didn’t mean to step on your post. Hate when that happens.

    And cheesus, didn’t think I’d live to see the day when GOPers would get quite this obvious. Hoping media is becoming sufficiently pissed off with Mittster to maybe mention this on the nightly news.

  8. 8.

    Elias Isquith

    July 26, 2012 at 1:59 pm

    @Libby Spencer: Ah, not at all. I think I unintentionally did the same to you a few days ago. Karma.

  9. 9.

    jl

    July 26, 2012 at 2:05 pm

    How can this stuff beat the Romney World Tour Laffriot?

    If Romney keeps it up, soon they will be splicing together syllables from Obama’s speeches to say “I/am/the/ An/ti/Christ”.

    It will be infuriating, and the lies should be exposed for the sake of historical record, but with Romney hitting comedy gold every day, all day long, who will notice?

  10. 10.

    Strangepork

    July 26, 2012 at 2:11 pm

    Are Moe Lane and Caleb Howe the same guy?

  11. 11.

    catclub

    July 26, 2012 at 2:16 pm

    Obama is objectively anti-business owner, you see.

    Yep, just look at the stock market, starting in say, Jan 2009, plus business profit reports.

  12. 12.

    JWL

    July 26, 2012 at 2:18 pm

    Those people thirsted to unleash the 2003 Iraq War, and SUCCEEDED beyond their wildest dreams.

    There have been sinister, inevitable repercussions as a result of that treason.

    One being that the republican party continues to lie because it works.

  13. 13.

    Elias Isquith

    July 26, 2012 at 2:19 pm

    @Strangepork: I thought so but it looks like that’s not the case. Turns out Caleb Howe is the other pudgy white guy at Red State. Anyway, thanks for flagging this.

  14. 14.

    Commenting at Balloon Juice Since 1937

    July 26, 2012 at 2:39 pm

    Why does everybody on Romney’s side sound like they’re still in junior high? You should have to pass a test to move out of your parents’ basement. And no broad band either until you do, just dial-up.

  15. 15.

    Joey Maloney

    July 26, 2012 at 2:46 pm

    @jl:

    If Romney keeps it up, soon they will be splicing together syllables from Obama’s speeches to say “I/am/the/ An/ti/Christ”.

    Someone should totally mock this up as a fake Romney ad and release it on the Youtubes.

  16. 16.

    Strangepork

    July 26, 2012 at 2:56 pm

    @Elias Isquith: No prob, I actually thought you might have stumbled across a wingnut secret identity or something.

  17. 17.

    Turgidson

    July 26, 2012 at 3:06 pm

    Funny thing is, even if you take Obama’s quote in the context the GOP wants you to, he’s fucking still right. The stimulus did fucking work. The auto bailout fucking worked. Even fucking TARP wasn’t the total fiasco it’s been made out to be, which is surprising considering a lot of GOP nitwits voted for it and Bush signed it, which usually means the bill is a shit sandwich covered in arsenic and baked with a cyanide glaze basted on it. Obama’s policies worked. Not as quickly or robustly as we needed, but they worked. When was the last time a GOP economic idea actually improved conditions for most Americans? Bueller?

    The economy does still suck, and worse than anyone wants it to, but it sucks a hell of a lot less than it would sans Obama’s Kenyan marxist policies. And it would suck still less if the brain-damaged teahadists in the House and filibustering fuckheads in the Senate hadn’t spent the last 2 years deliberately derailing anything that might help boost job growth.

    And Rmoney’s prescription for the economy would fuck shit up beyond belief. Which only the shrill non-serious among us care to mention, of course.

  18. 18.

    japa21

    July 26, 2012 at 3:24 pm

    @Turgidson: You just beat me to it. Take away the teachers, firemen and policemen as well as other public workers lost because the Republicans would not vote for aid to the states, the UE would be around 7%. Pass a comprhensive transportation bill that covers 5 years, like is normal, th UE would have dropped. Look at job formation and GDP growth. When did it start slowing down? Once the original stimulus ran out and when the GOP took control of the House.

  19. 19.

    PopeRatzo

    July 26, 2012 at 3:35 pm

    Moe Lane and Caleb Howe are, um, technically different entities

    I’m going to have to go ahead and ask for a citation on that.

  20. 20.

    El Cid

    July 26, 2012 at 4:16 pm

    OMG! Obama’s got a PLAN! Just like Stalin had plans! So did Mao!

  21. 21.

    low-tech cyclist

    July 26, 2012 at 4:18 pm

    I’m sure the entire rightwing blogosphere has already jumped all over the video. That it’s a cut-and-dry misrepresentation of the President’s words doesn’t seem to matter. As I discovered in an earlier post, the actual veracity of a GOP quote of the President doesn’t matter; because even if Obama didn’t quite say what they’re saying he said, his comment nevertheless revealed his true ideology.

    It’s been said before — and it’s a bit of an easy zinger, admittedly — but I’m always struck by how often movement conservatives end up sounding like unreconstructed Communists…

    Admit it, Elias, you just said:

    I’m…a…Communist[]

    Sorry, couldn’t resist. :)

  22. 22.

    JR

    July 26, 2012 at 7:30 pm

    ZOMG I found a speech where Obama said “Osama bin Laden isn’t a threat to this country”!!!

    Someone needs to make this into a commercial right the fuck yesterday!

    Here it is, second paragraph! http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2012-01-24/state-of-the-union-transcript/52780694/1

Comments are closed.

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  1. Everything You Hate About Political Journalism In One Post – Elias Isquith says:
    July 26, 2012 at 4:42 pm

    […] any traditional understanding of what it means to be a journalist. Blake’s writing about the aforementioned“It worked” lie, and in the process of writing 300 or so words of nothing, journo Aaron […]

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