What Obama Actually Said

[lwcon]

Ready for another round of What Obama Really Meant?

Obama "explains" his Reagan quote (video) by — wait for it — ratifying Republican framing:

He leads off:

Well, I think that, keep in mind Ronald Reagan came in during the 1980s, at a time when, I think, Democrats still dominated Congress, when the view was that we were going to solve our problems, oftentimes, by expanding government programs, and he challenged many of those ideas.

He proceeds to criticize Reagan's policies and then says:

When Bill Clinton said "the era of small government is over," he was echoing some of the shifts that had taken place.

Let's assume that Obama merely misspoke and meant to say "big government," which is the correct quote. It would be unthinkable that someone besides the Clintons would indulge in skullduggery. So, seriously, let's give him a pass on misquoting the Big Dog into a perfect rightwing talking point.

Let's focus, instead, on how Obama might have framed Reaganism:

• "Ronald Reagan ran on a platform of thinly veiled racism."
• "Ronald Reagan ushered in an era that demonized the poor and venerated jingoistic, authoritarian power."
• "Ronald Reagan created the illusion of small government, while actually replacing services for the neediest with 'welfare' for the wealthiest and best-connected."
• "Ronald Reagan represented a disastrous 'triumph' of image over substance."
• "Ronald Reagan brought or returned to power the corrupt, incompetent cronies whose fingerprints are all over our shredded Constitution."
  
• "Ronald Reagan" ran on a campaign of national security and then proceeded to illegally sell arms to our sworn enemy."
  

None of those, or zillions of other possible variations, would do. Because they wouldn't put the blame for our country's problems on the likes of Jimmy Carter, where they belong.

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[Lucinda]

1. And if you listen to the audio:

"I think it’s fair to say that the Republicans were the party of ideas for a pretty long chunk of time there over the last 10, 15 years"

Which takes us back through the past 7 years of junior through Clinton's years.

[lwcon]

2. Obama is the king...

... of equivalation, which used to be just a Republican skill.

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[AX10]

3. Thanks.

:thumbsup:

[MS Liberal]

4. Do we really want a President who cannot say what he means the first time.

[AX10]

5. We have that right now.

[lwcon]

7. And they're both "Uniters" n/t

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[lwcon]

6. Or one who doesn't say something equally regrettable the second time? n/t

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[Lucinda]

10. This sums it up perfectly (from your link):

"It’s quite clear that it matters little to today’s news outlets that equivalation confers broad legitimacy to ideas, claims, and people that otherwise could not possibly earn such credibility."

[ClericJohnPreston]

8. I understand your point

and applaud your earnest efforts to demonstrate the void between reality and perception, but you might as well be talking to a wall, as drive home any point to an Obamite.

They are willingly complicit in this thinly veiled charade, whcih falls apart like House of Cards upon any level of scrutiny. Instead, they don't exercise any reasonable caution in accepting policies which provide no more than an outline for action, WITH NO SPECIFICS. LINKS, always links, are provided because there is no clear delineation of a fleshed out policy, nothing for a poster to remember.

Thus, like his speeches which essentially say nothing, his policies leave open a void for interpretation. Most Obamites merely project their own interpretation to what they hear or see. In the end, not much more than buzzwords define all actions and thoughts: hope, change, hope, change, in an endless succession.

Sad, isn't it?

[lwcon]

16. But we are still all getting ponies.

Right?

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[ClericJohnPreston]

17. I'll take hard commitments to a policy, thank you

The heck with floral patterns, pies-in-the-sky, or little puppies or ponies.

Maybe some of the less discriminating posters here don't see what we see, but enough do, and thus the need to hammer home the difference between perception and reality. That is especialy the case when that perception is so warped by cognitive dissonance or manipulation.

[ClericJohnPreston]

9. Good thread

:kick: & R

[Tactical Progressive]

11. Obama is a big fan of Reagan's Administration

and not just the man.

It's amazing that so many of the Dem-Haters that inhabit DU and hold Hillary as their latest object of scorn because they incorrectly think she's not left enough, are Obama fans.

Obama, who reifies not just 'The Great Communicator', but his legacy of 'ideas' that the Publicans stand for.

Hillary is so to the left of Obama. She is as aghast at Obama's Reagan revelations as anyone.

[lwcon]

12. Check out the many lame rationalizations in the DKos crosspost

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/1/27/16423/9436/133/444298#c6

[robbedvoter]

13. Excesses of the 60, 70 - Civil Rights ("Voting act - a humiliation for the South"

as ST Ronny put it

[Stephanie]

14. Why don't you give the full context of the quotes?

They're right here >

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x4232064

[lwcon]

15. Is anything I said incorrect or misleading?

I linked to the original vid., though your link to additional rough-transcript text is appreciated.

But he began exactly as I said he did. He proceeded to say he didn't like Reagan's policies, which I noted, and then he mangled the Clinton quote.

Does anything about the other "context" change the fact that -- once again -- Obama chooses to frame his politics according to the disempowering frames of the rightwing?


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[lwcon]

18. Still waiting.... n/t