The talking heads love presidential analogies. Is
Obamacare’s roll-out Obama’s Katrina or his Iraq? Is Obama’s false promise that
you could keep your health-care plan like George H. W. Bush’s “read my lips”
pledge, or is it like Clinton’s “I did not have sexual relations with that
woman”? Iran–Contra anyone?
These comparisons don’t take you far. The president’s troubles are
unique to his particular vanities and blind spots.
Some of Obama’s most devoted admirers are at pains to distinguish his current
fall from grace from George W. Bush’s. Chris Matthews, for example, argues
that,
The problem with Katrina was apparent indifference. One thing you can’t hold
against the president is indifference about health care. He’s the guy that
rushed in, pushed through a program with pure Democratic support, and took all
the risks involved in it.
The accusation that Bush was “indifferent” to the suffering caused by Katrina
is to take as fact the slanders of Bush’s detractors. Matthews also extends
gracious allowances for Mr. Obama’s motives (though his suggestion that Obama
“took all the risks” might not go down well with the 63 Democrats who lost their
seats in 2010).
Continue Reading....
No comments:
Post a Comment