It's Deja Ted All Over Again

Now is the time when Bill Kristol juxtaposes:

It’s a vision that says up to 50 million Americans have to lose their health insurance in order for us to reduce the deficit. Who are these 50 million Americans? Many are somebody’s grandparents, maybe one of yours, who wouldn’t be able afford nursing home care without Medicaid. Many are poor children. Some are middle-class families who have children with autism or Down’s syndrome. Some are kids with disabilities . . . so severe that they require 24-hour care. These are the Americans we’d be telling to fend for themselves.

—President Barack Obama, April 13, 2011

Robert Bork’s America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens’ doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists would be censored at the whim of the government, and the doors of the Federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens. . . .

—Senator Edward Kennedy, July 1, 1987

Kristol adds, “Some things never change:”

Take American liberalism (please!). Thirty years ago there was the sweet talk of the dream that shall never die. Two years ago there was the uplifting promise of hope and change. But when the political rubber meets the road, when there’s a possibility the left will lose power, then . . . then, between the idea and the reality, falls the shadow. The shadow that reveals the truth about modern liberalism is dark. It’s about nightmares, not dreams. It’s about fearful clinging rather than hopeful changing. It’s about pandering and slandering rather than explaining and arguing.

On the other hand, occasionally “Obama’s bridge over troubled demagoguery collapses:”

CBS calls The One out for a shovel-ready speech citing a bridge collapse to defend every last cent of federal spending.

“According to the Republican budget that was passed, for example, we would have to eliminate transportation funding by a third,” he said. “…You remember when that bridge in Minnesota collapsed with all those people on it and there was a big hue and cry, how could this happen in America?”

Mr. Obama noted that the United States has been given a “D” grade for its infrastructure and said U.S. roads, sewers and bridges are “all deteriorating.” He added: “We cut transportation by another third and what’s going to happen to America? We’re just going to have potholes everywhere? We’re just gonna have bridges collapsing everywhere?”

While experts say America’s aging infrastructure is a significant problem, the bridge collapse in Minnesota, which killed 13 people, was found to have been caused primarily by a design flaw.

It’s so much easier to speechify at a friendly audience than it is to actually know what you’re talking about. That’s why he gets snippy when a reporter interrupts His Airness’ long-winded and ultimately deceptive answers.

But with regards to infrastructure spending, wasn’t the 2009 stimulus supposed to throw a trillion dollars at “shovel ready” projects? What happened to that?