11K words from Obama on his worldview and all DC can talk about is an obviously accidental micro-gaffe. This is why everyone hates DC press.
— Max Fisher (@Max_Fisher) February 10, 2015
“Vox Dot Com Accidentally Breaks News, Instantly Regrets It,” Sonny Bunch quips at the Washington Free Beacon, regarding the president’s obscene “random” quote, perhaps the ultimate Kinsley-esque gaffe* in the otherwise apple-polishing infomercial Vox produced for their boss at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, which hit the Internet yesterday:
As if, you know, the shooters just kind of stumbled onto that kosher deli and would’ve been happy shooting up a Moroccan joint instead if they had happened upon it first.
I find Fisher’s missive remarkably amusing for a couple of reasons. The first is his idea that this “obviously accidental micro-gaffe” isn’t itself a fascinating glimpse into Obama’s worldview. I mean, the big brains at Vox didn’t think it was a particularly big deal, since neither Ezra Klein nor Matt Yglesias appear to have asked him a follow up. But it really is: If you think that radical extremists targeting an ethnic group is nothing more than a random act of violence, you reject the whole framework of terrorism and are, frankly, not in a good position to lead an effort aimed at stopping terrorists.
Most humorously, however, is Fisher’s rather rabid insistence that there’s nothing to see here, this is an accident, a misstatement, it’s a gaffe, you’re all crazy. Because you know who seems to disagree with Fisher about this? Um, the Obama administration. Josh Earnest was given a chance to walk Obama’s idiotic statement back today, an opportunity to say the president meant “senseless” rather than “random.” Something, anything. And how did Earnest play it?
You can observe that in our earlier post, along with Jen Psaki’s equally fumbling answer. I almost feel sorry for them today having to defend their boss. (Almost.)
And speaking of Obama and religion, as Joel Pollock writes at Big Government concerning a new admission from David Axelrod that Obama lies on the campaign trail in 2008, “Obama’s Gay Marriage Lie Was a Lie About His Faith, Too:”
For example, during the Saddleback Forum in August 2008, where Obama and Republican rival Sen. John McCain appeared separately to answer questions from Pastor Rick Warren about their faith and political beliefs, Obama declared: “I believe that marriage is the union between a man and a woman. Now, for me as a Christian–for me–for me as a Christian, it is also a sacred union. God’s in the mix.”
“Obama Misled Nation” is almost a perennial headline–it applies to nearly everything the president does. Yet it is important to be clear about the nature of this particular lie.
Obama did not just pretend to oppose a controversial position. He pretended to hold that view as a matter of his Christian faith.
He lied about his most sincere religious convictions–and much of his senior staff lied along with him.
A couple of years ago, Victor Davis Hanson described “Obama as Chaos:”
In short, whenever the president prefaces a sweeping statement with one of his many emphatics — “make no mistake about it,” “I’m not making this up,” “in point of fact,” “let me be perfectly clear” — we know that the reverse is always true. For Obama, how something is said matters far more than what is said. If he stumbles, as is his wont, through an un-teleprompted remark that on rare occasions can be mostly accurate, that is a serious lapse; if, more frequently, he mellifluously asserts a teleprompted falsehood, there is little worry. The result is not so much untruth, lies, or distortions, as virtual chaos. Is what he says untrue, contradictory of what he said or did earlier, or just nonsensical?
Or to put another of Obama’s lies into visual terms:
[jwplayer player=”1″ mediaid=”69629″]
* For now. With a little under two years left in his administration, who knows what other craziness will emerge from our wild ‘n’ crazy YOLO POTUS?
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