Barack Obama Ain’t No Richard Nixon
Senator Lamar Alexander, a moderate Republican in the extremist GOP, was the focus of a Reuters article where he warned Barack Obama not to prepare an “ememy’s list” as did Alexander’s former boss Richard Nixon. John McCain then chimed in warning about nonexistent Greek Gods. Bizarro World in GOP Land. Reuters did no fact checking as usual.
How can anyone imagine the press to be supportive of Obama after this piece. First, Reuters writer Thomas Ferraro latches onto comments by Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Nixonian) comparing Barack Obama to his old boss. He warned Barack Obama not to start an enemies list, as Alexander’s old boss Richard Nixon. Is this projection or what? From the Reuters Stenography Service:
A top U.S. Senate Republican invoked the memory of the scandal-marred Nixon administration on Wednesday to urge U.S. President Barack Obama: “Don’t start an enemies list.”
Senator Lamar Alexander told Reuters he sees the Obama White House adopting an attitude similar to that of the Richard Nixon White House four decades ago, that “everybody is against us and we are going to get them.”
Alexander cited as examples the Obama administration threatening to strip the insurance industry of its exemption of federal anti-trust laws, “taking names” of bondholders who opposed the auto bailout, its reported aim to “neuter the U.S. Chamber of Commerce,” boycotting Fox News Network and “calling out” of others who oppose it.
“I’m suggesting to the president that he back up and start over,” said Alexander, a member of the Senate Republican leadership. “Don’t start an enemies list.”
This was followed by the ring of truth tolling from Alexander’s lips. Yeah, right.
“We want to work with you,” Alexander said.
Now some of us have memories. We remember Richard Nixon’s enemies list, and also the ludicrous people who showed up on it. Paul Newman considered his inclusion his greatest accomplishment. He was joined by Barbra Streisand, George Wallace, Bill Cosby, Pioneering heart surgeon Michael DeBakey, Carol Channing, Joe Namath and Gregory Peck. Check out Nixon’s enemies list yourself. But keep in mind that just because a Republican calims something doesn’t mean there’s a ring of truth to it. This warning of Alexander for Obama to avoid building an enemies list has the same ring of truth as might a warning to Obama not to fiddle while Rome burns. It’s bizarre in relation to the truth, and the Reuters article not only has no comment on that, but also interviewed nobody with an opposing point of view. Sloppiness or blatant stroking of the GOP? Or maybe this is incompetence on the part of Reuters writers and editors, an incompetence so similar to Republican incompetence that we might want to bring in Lamar Alexander to warn them.
And now to John McCain. Reuters writer Thomas Ferraro knows his stuff in at least one sense; you can always get a good quote from John McCain, even if that quote is throroughly stupid. Check out the words of John McCain in support of the ludicrous notion that Barack Obama might be constructing an enemies list a la Nixon:
Republican Senator John McCain, later at the Reuters summit, advised Obama to tread carefully in a town where political enemies come with the territory.
“I think I’ve been around this town, in the view of many, too long. But long enough to see what the Greek god Hubris will do to administrations,” said McCain, who lost the 2008 presidential election to Obama.
“And if I were advising the president, which obviously in the administration I’m not, I would encourage them to tread very carefully in making enemies intentionally,” he said. “I’ve found in Washington you pick up enough enemies just conducting your normal life without going out and picking some out.”
My high school Latin teacher Mrs. Ringler is rolling in her grave. The Greek God Hubris? Wha. . .
Did nobody at Reuters, either reporter or editor, ever take history? Wouldn’t you think it’s a requirement to being a reporter, at least if one refers to history in a story? Sure, this guy screwed up on the supposed parallel between Nixon and Obama, but that’s to be expected given that he evidently set out to do a hit piece on Obama, or at the least merely a job of stenography while listening to Republican rants, then reporting them as “news.” But he allowed McCain to get away with fantasy, at best an old man’s memory lapse, and treated it as if it were fact. No, there was no Greek God named “Hubris.” Any reporter who takes John McCain at his word is not doing his job. Or shilling for the GOP.
I leave you with Neil Young. Even Richard Nixon has got soul.
Why do the Republicans want to remind people of their most infamous President?
Unless it is their realization that he is not longer No. 1and so they can hopefully use his image to direct people’s attention away from the new Republican No. 1 most infamous President, Duhbya.
Give Firey Wreck a break, it’s been a looooooong time since he was in school and studied Greek Mythology and the Cliff’s notes version probably didn’t fully cover Hubris in Greek life.
Gee, ask the brain dead motherfucker how to spell hubris. Without a speech writer he couldn’t spell stupid twice correctly. Remember Saint Ronnie was entirely insane in 1988. His “problem” didn’t get any care so the “liberal media” didn’t notice as he slipped into senile dementia.
McCain makes Saint Unwrapped Idiot look sane.
His wife has his balls in a glass bowl and when she wants to she can really rip his hubris.
Remember the six to eight houses? Think McCain ever paid a dime for those? They used to call these kind of men gigolos , now it is nothing but praise. Yeah, the republicans ran an idiot and a male prostitute for President and Vice President and no one in the “liberal media” made any comment. I never want to hear any fucking person say “liberal media” again, it is pure and simple propaganda. The fact that a male whore and an idiot ran for the highest places in this country and I am now hearing the whore use “hubris” as if the senile old fool had a clue as to what it meant.
Shit, give the place to France, they at least have class.
Now who is the fucking asshole that wrote that speech, and don’t tell me McCain, he’s a fucking illiterate asshole, who reads the Arizona republic and thinks it was written by god.
Hmm. Looks as if John McTwit got much the same sort of education as the other McTwit, Meghan.
That, or ignorance and self-absorption runs in the family. But, when it comes to Johnny Flame-out, divining root causes is just not worth the time or effort….