ShortTimer
JBHLast Friday, Obama spoke in front of a crowd in Ohio. In one of the few non-teleprompter unscripted moments, he had this to say:
Obama made the remark at a Friday rally after supporters booed Romney. “No, no, no. Don’t boo. Vote,” Obama told a crowd in Springfield, Ohio. “Voting is the best revenge.”
Let’s read that one more time.
VOTING IS THE BEST REVENGE.
Romney responded on Saturday by not just sounding, but being presidential:
“Vote for revenge? Let me tell you: Vote for love of country,” Romney said to cheers.
There was plenty of talk from Obama later trying to cover for his statements, including accusing Romney of making attacks based on Jeep’s threats to move to China. Thing is, no one was discussing that when the revenge comment was made.
But a transcript posted on the White House shows that Obama was not speaking in the context of Romney’s controversial ads about Chrysler, bailed out by the U.S. government, adding production of Jeeps in China.
Obama has (sic) not mentioned the Jeep issue when he talked about ‘revenge’. Rather, he had spoken about Hurricane Sandy, the U.S. economy, national security and Clinton’s record.
Jonah Goldberg at NRO notes that it’s a very strange, narcissitic, bizarre thing to say.
I’m not so sure that it’s that bizarre. In the context of an anti-colonialist who believes his life is a struggle against phantom oppressors, reliving the dreams of his father – an anti-colonialist anti-western communist radical, it’s not so strange. If you see him as an angry street agitator, furious at the perceived oppression, viewing the success of anyone as a strike against him in his zero-sum game mentality, then yes, he really does want revenge against Romney. He wants revenge for everything Romney stands for, much like he wants revenge against America for everything he thinks they did to “his people”, the same varying, fluctuating masses that every leftist claims to want to avenge (though the leftist keeps them down to perpetuate their own existence). You can see it in who he identifies himself with, who he learned from, and who he allies with.
It’s actually quite sad.
