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Does Mac get an apology?

Submitted by Ironman on Fri, 03/13/2009 - 19:53
in

Remember this ad? Various versions of this were run against McCain, as well as Republican Congressmen like Chris Shays. And were quite effective I may add,

When he took office Obama used the old doom and gloom approach to railrod passage of his trillion dollar "stimulus" plan  even though some observers suggested it would backfire.

But at least it was consistent with his campaign rhetoric that the prior administration had ruined everything.

Words have consequences, and it's hard to improve consumer confidence with doom and gloom (my read on the minimal improvement here and the stock rally is people expected Bank of America and Citi to have failed already, and are relieved that they didn;t).

So, now

If we are keeping focused on all of the fundamentally sound aspects of our economy, all the outstanding companies, workers, all of the innovation and dynamism in this economy then we're going to get through this," Obama said. "I'm very confident about that." 

See, whn John McCain said the economy was fundamentally sound he was clueless. When Barack Obama says it--well it's because he's optimistic.

Even Obama's 2008 supporters think he's selling fake sunshine . Hope is a free good; money and credit, alas, are not.. Nor are credibility and consistency  of much value in ObamaWorld.

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Comments

Let's not rewrite history that's only a few months ago.

Submitted by artigiano on Fri, 03/13/2009 - 20:46.

McCain actually said "the fundamentals of our economy are sound," not "our economy is fundamentally sound."

And even "our economy is fundamentally sound" is not in any way synonymous to the statement, "fundamentally sound aspects of our economy."

You might as well argue that the terms "founding documents" and "documented founders" mean the same thing. Or "quantum mechanics" and "mechanical quantities". Or "performance features" and "featured performance." Or "procedural methods" and "methodical procedures."

We could do this all day with words whose noun and adjective forms have very different meanings. But nice try. Ari Fleischer and Karl Rove would be proud of the effort.

More Legalistic, Semantic Bullshit

Submitted by ddemilo on Fri, 03/13/2009 - 22:49.

I'm in a cranky mood tonight I guess, but this is the second post I've seen on this site (I think form the same poster) that resorts to parsing Obama's words down to the word to divine his true meaning -- and it's something I hear from many people on the web and in direct conversation. Reminds of "it depends on what the meaning of 'is' is."

All of which sets off my BS detector, and has me looking up lawyer jokes.

And hey, McCain was closer to right than Obama: The fudamentals ARE in better shape than the economy, meaning the macro-economy, or the way components of the economy work together, especially when a key component is horribly diseased.

And now I challenge your parse with a rhyme: If you can't speak plainly, very likely you're aiming to deceive.

Luckily we have a "parse" quote too.

Submitted by artigiano on Sat, 03/14/2009 - 08:01.

The president speaks very plainly. That is why one can look at the words he actually spoke, and divine their true meaning quite easily. We don't have to rely on some bullshit paraphrase from internet posters, or Hannity's nightly "Liberal Translation" segment, or Rush telling us "what that's code for."

At least once a day I have to put up with some conservative asshole on this site who wants to tell me what something Obama said, "really means." I can read for myself quite well thank you, without your interprative efforts. And if you take offense at my use of the phrase "conservative asshole", try reading again and parsing it, to magically discover that if you don't try to pull this same obvious deception, that puts you outside the circle in the Venn diagram in the larger domain of the non-asshole conservatives.

But the very best situation of all, is when a speaker is asked to parse his own words. Then we have an unarguable comparison quote to see if our conservative friends have indeed been honest in their representation of the meaning of the words. Ddemilo contends:

And hey, McCain was closer to right than Obama: The fudamentals ARE in better shape than the economy, meaning the macro-economy, or the way components of the economy work together, especially when a key component is horribly diseased.

But if you check the news clippings from Black Monday we see that McCain and every talking head in his campaign made it crystal clear in responding to direct questions asking them to parse the famous quote themselves, that "the fundamentals" meant "the American workers" and nothing else. Not at all what Ddemilo or Ironman would have us believe about an event we all experienced, and think that we clearly remember.

The power of words is amazing. Because of Ironman's original post's misquote, and my hasty response, where I parsed his misquote using just my faulty memory, I went to bed last night fully convinced that McCain's famous quote was, "The fundamentals of our economy are sound." A quick Internet check shows he actually said, "The fundamentals of our economy are strong." Which is undeniably a stronger adjective, with a different meaning from "sound."

Just another example of how a second hand explananation can reshape your perspectives even when you disagree. In war, the first army to get there gets to choose the battleground. And that one simple and small difference can be the factor that decides the outcome of the battle. It's no different in political debate.

really

Submitted by Ironman on Fri, 03/13/2009 - 20:50.

Are we back to discussing  what "is""is"?

AG, I saw Chris Shays skewered morning noon and night on CT TV for using that phrase. Now that the Democrats finally realised they were trashing their own economy,  happy talk is A-OK. 

The Orwellian use of the English langugage by the American Left would be amusing if the consequences weren't so damaging.

 

Georges On My Mind

Submitted by artigiano on Fri, 03/13/2009 - 21:20.

“You've got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.”

 “I just want you to know that when we talk about war, we’re really talking about peace.”

Which is Orwell and which is Bush?

Bush mangled the English language by accident

Submitted by Ironman on Fri, 03/13/2009 - 21:53.

Obama is doing it on purpose

But if you check the news

Submitted by tolo87 (not verified) on Fri, 04/03/2009 - 15:37.

But if you check the news clippings from Black Monday we see that McCain and every talking head in his campaign made it crystal clear in responding to direct questions asking them to parse the famous quote themselves, that "the fundamentals" meant "the American workers" and nothing else. Not at all what Ddemilo or Ironman would have us believe about an event we all experienced, and think that we clearly remember. Mike at winter coats guide.

You would do good replacing

Submitted by In between on Fri, 03/13/2009 - 20:54.

You would do good replacing Sean Hannity. Any way you want to spin it.

Let's see, if Pelosi was president and things were going sour and Reid was running for president and he would say that the economy is fundamentally sound. I think you would vote for the other party.

After 8 disastrous years with deficits and debt, war, middle class jobs going overseas, and on and on you would vote for the other party. Nobody had to talk about gloom and doom. We lived it for 8 years. 

8 Years of Doom and Gloom?

Submitted by ddemilo on Fri, 03/13/2009 - 22:55.

Don't know what happened to you in the last 8 years, but where I live and work things were pretty good for most of them, in terms of employment, sales, opportunity. And no, I'm not a millionaire, or a greedy banker, and I've even suffered job loss in those 8 years.

Sometimes I think people think Presidents have a panel of magic buttons and levers under the desk in the Oval Office, and that they "run the country."

They don't. Market economies have lives and momentum of their own, and the government can direct it about as much as engineers can direct rivers. They can also screw it up, with too little or too much direction.

So don't be so melodramatic: Much good happened in those last 8 years, too. If not for you, then for others.

Well, my job went to Mexico.

Submitted by In between on Sat, 03/14/2009 - 06:16.

Well, my job went to Mexico. Luckily, I was able to retire. Other jobs are going to China as the factories close up. I live in the Midwest and it is a disaster. And that is exactly why Obama got elected, if you look at the electoral vote. Bush said "free trade is good" as factories close. So I don't get it. This is what I posted before  A failed president and failed ideologies. And here is the answer to fixing our problems My own stimulus long and short.

Obama just needs Jon Stewart's

Submitted by T D Williams on Fri, 03/13/2009 - 21:27.

computer to help him out.

Re: Does Mac get an apology?

Submitted by gs on Sat, 03/14/2009 - 14:39.

Good grief, who cares?  Pointless complaining is what a permanent minority does.

I thought maybe the Republicans were finally starting to understand how badly they had misgoverned.  

Then again, maybe the GOP still expects the penitent swing vote to come crawling back like the prodigal son.

Lotsa luck.