Obama, King of the Strawmen

Strawmen, Behold Your King!

“In strawmanese, you never specify who ‘those who’ are. They are the hollow scarecrows you set up to knock down.” -William Safire

I'm going to channel my inner Andy Rooney here: Didja ever wonder who in the bloody blue blazes Barack Obama is talking about when he builds his little straw man arguments? You know? The kind that usually starts with something like "Some people say that...", before he proceeds to tear apart an argument that absolutely no one is making. Or, "Some of my opponents have actually thanked me for..., confided to me that..., agree with me that...", but he never quite gets around to mentioning the names of any of his imaginary friends. I believe we can add his references to "Republicans who want the country to default" to that list. It's always far easier to distort the argument of your opponents, if not make them up out of whole cloth, than to honestly, squarely face the truth..

How about some 'golden oldie' strawmen from the 2009 New York Times?

“Some people say that maybe I’m being too idealistic. I made a speech in Prague about reducing and ultimately eliminating nuclear weapons, and some people said, ah, that will never happen. And some people have said, why are you discussing the Middle East when it’s not going to be possible for the Israelis and the Palestinians to come together? Or why are you reaching out to the Iranians, because the U.S. and Iran can never agree on anything?”

Again, in 2009, in the WSJ:

On Tuesday night, Mr. Obama told Congress and the nation, "I reject the view that . . . says government has no role in laying the foundation for our common prosperity." Who exactly has that view? Certainly not congressional Republicans, who believe that through reasonable tax cuts, fiscal restraint, and prudent monetary policies government contributes to prosperity.

Put up a flimsy argument that absolutely no one is making and then definitively knock it over. No one says government has no role. A Constitutional Republic is government constrained and ordered by the Constitution. Liberals who bleat that conservatives are 'anarchists' are either delusional, or simply unable to counter any argument that anyone is actually making.

William Jacobson noted in 2010, Obama's bogus attempt to portray himself as one who champions tax cuts. How? By making up a phony argument and wrestling it to the ground with his bare hands!

“Just as I suspect the Republican Party may fight to end the middle-class tax cuts that I’ve championed and that they’ve opposed.”

What?? Republicans never "fought to end" anybody's tax cut. Republicans fought to keep the across the board tax cuts from the Bush administration intact. It was Obama and the Democrats who engaged in brinksmanship before they finally backed down and didn't raise taxes the way Obama wanted to. And Obama never advocated any "middle class tax cut". The middle class tax rate would have simply stayed at the old rates. On what planet is not raising your taxes considered a "tax cut"? Can you say "blatantly dishonest"?

The Blaze counted nine strawmen in his second inaugural speech.

Again this year, when the NSA scandal was breaking, Mr. Obama and his strawmen took to the podium:

“Nobody is listening to your telephone calls...You can’t have 100 percent security and then also have 100 percent privacy and zero inconvenience,”

No one made the argument that anyone was listening to phone calls. The charge was that the calls and their data was being recorded and stored, of every single person in America. And who ever made the argument that "You can’t have 100 percent security and then also have 100 percent privacy and zero inconvenience". No one said that either. He just makes stuff up, and then uses indignant and condescending tones to reply to accusations and arguments that no one has ever made.

Mark Levin, the other day, went so far as to say that Obama was a pathological liar. Now, I'm not comfortable saying that. Not because it isn't true, because it is, I'm just uncomfortable saying it. I'm uncomfortable with the fact that the so called 'leader of the free world' is a habitual liar.

Don't believe me? Obama has repeated a number of times in the last week how he "cut the deficit in half", appealing to the math impaired, low information voters who make up the Democrat base. 'In half' compared to what?? Most reasonable people would assume that he was referring to what it was when he took office. But no. Compared to the Bush deficits, which conservatives admit were too high, Obama has done nothing but multiply and increase them. It is the height of dishonesty for him to imply anything else. Remember! There's a good reason why Obama is so fond of the word "bamboozler".

And you remember the "brinksmanship" of extending the Bush tax cuts that Obama wanted to eliminate, we mentioned earlier? Apparently, according to Obama, Obama doesn't approve of "brinksmanship", either:

Whether it's the work of creating jobs, growing the economy, or getting our fiscal house in order for the long haul, we've got a lot of work to do and constant brinksmanship doesn't let us do it.

-Barack Obama, Weekly Radio address, 10/12/13

According to Barack Obama, "constant brinksmanship" interferes with "creating jobs, growing the economy, and getting our fiscal house in order". Could that be the constant brinksmanship of dealing with a multitude of Continuing Resolutions to fund the government, perhaps? Because Harry Reid's Senate hasn't passed a budget since 2009?? So, the person most responsible for "constant brinksmanship" that Obama dislikes so much, is Harry Reid! Funny how Obama has never criticized Reid for not passing a budget in the Senate, as the Constitution requires every year. The last budget passed in 2009. Could Obama's cockamamie claim that he "cut the deficit in half" have anything to with the fact that since we still don't have a current federal budget, he can compare his massive overspending to the Continuing Resolutions, contributing to the brinksmanship he claims to detest?


Remember the old Twilight Zone? The was one episode where this used car dealer bought a car, and whoever owned that car could not tell a lie. I'd love to sign the pink slip on that baby over to B.H. Obama for 24 hours and watch the fireworks fly! Instead, We're stuck in a Twilight Zone, where, because we have no money to keep the government open 100%, we pay even more money to barricade our open air parks and memorials to keep out the people we were trying to honor.

Rod Serling would have had a field day!



Original art work created for Proof Positive by John Cox
Cross posted at LCR