Did you know?
In 1973, Richard Nixon created The President’s Export Council, which was expanded and reconstituted under President Jimmy Carter in 1979. Today the PEC continues to work towards reaching President Obama’s goal of doubling the nation’s exports by 2014’s end.
Conservatives have been having fun mocking it all day long, which is absolutely -- Philip Klein's attempt to make something more of it notwithstanding -- the best reaction. Note, in Klein's post, that he attributes it to Obama's "narcissism," as if this was something that Obama himself initiated and, perhaps, carried out. Of course, it's no such thing; it's just really painfully awkward and foolish electioneering.
Much better is NRO's Dan Foster, who offered several decent ones and this keeper:
3bn years ago, aerobic life appeared. Obama has made historic use of oxygen in his answers to press conference questions. #ObamaInHistoryIt's just a foolish mistake by someone (yes, of course the White House web site is going to contain the president's talking points, but heavy-handed propaganda just makes them look silly). They should correct it. If the White House doesn't (1) scrub these within the next couple days, and (2) accompany it with a decently self-deprecating comment from the press office, they deserve another round of ridicule.
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I went and looked at the page, and IMO "really painfully awkward" seems a bit strong. It's certainly somewhat awkward. It seems really normal, even if I wish they wouldn't do stuff like that.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I seem to remember Bush doing far more egregious things, like editing official SSA reports and adding propaganda items to otherwise nonpartisan agency material and -- am I wrong about this? -- dismissing people who wouldn't toe the Bush line etc etc. That stuff is "painful" -- this stuff is just an eye-roll, no more.
DeleteYou make it sound as if something actually offensive appeared on the White House website.
ReplyDeleteAs you note, the White House website will always contain the president's talking points. So all this represents is putting the propaganda in a different part of the website. I mean, admittedly, it looks a little weird to have the talking points accompanied by a picture of Tricky Dick, but this is hardly an egregious outrage that needs to be apologized for now now now.
(Or does Constitutional separation of powers include a iron barrier between the White House website's policy and history section?)
Yeah, "painfully awkward and foolish" seems like an overbid. It's not like they inserted them into the biographies; they're obviously little addendums meant to stand on their own.
ReplyDeleteAnd really, who reads the presidential bios on the White House web site anyway? Issuing a "decently self-deprecating comment from the press office" would simply call attention to something that very few people know about in the first place.
We here so much of the problems of 'big government,' that addendums that connect things from Presidents past to the value of good government strikes me as a good thing.
ReplyDeleteReally, when Republicans attack like this, it's not just to demean and belittle Obama, it's to undermine any government and reaffirm the notion that it's all bad and should be done away with.
Edit: hear, not here. Been a long day.
ReplyDeleteI don't think they should scrub them. First off, I think they're kinda cool - "Connect the past with today."
ReplyDeleteSecondly, I get annoyed when things are scrubbed for stupid haha reasons when they're not actively insulting.
I think you are wrong. Interestingly there appear to be historical connections with all Presidents back to Coolidge with the exception of Ford and Hoover. I think what they show is the continuity of many govt policies, and the fact that Obama is the successor of all the Presidents. Many of them are quite innocuous.
ReplyDeleteHopefully the Executive Branch has better advisers and will keep it.
All I regret is that the project hasn't been more fully developed to at least include Teddy and Abe.
Well, I'm unconvinced. And I strongly suspect that a lot of y'all would have reacted differently if GWB had done the same thing.
ReplyDeleteI don't see anything wrong with either showing current relevance or showing that government can actually solve problems. But this takes what was a non-partisan, neutral historical portion of the site and added (yes, separate from the main articles, but still) re-election materials. It's clumsy, and in my view it's a bad idea.
While I'm with you on this one, I can't help but wonder if it's because I'm so overly sensitive to committing false equivalence these days that I'm over-correcting, and consequently actually committing false equivalence.
DeleteAs in "you're right, I would have reacted negatively to Bush doing this, therefore my blase reaction at this is partisan." But, what if my blase reaction to it is really just it's not that big a deal?
Clarifying: I don't think it's a big deal.
DeleteBetter yet, staple Obamacare ads to checks
ReplyDelete"This letter is to inform you that you will receive a rebate of a portion of your health insurance premiums. This rebate is required by the Affordable Care Act-the health reform law."
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/05/13/insurers-must-credit-obamacare-when-giving-new-round-rebates-feds-say/
Mistaking FOX News for journalism is a category error made by people on the wrong side of the IQ bell curve.
Deletepurusha,
DeleteCopy the quoted text and paste into a browser. Many hits, including of the .gov PDF from which this quote was taken.
You mean, they should get the checks from some anonymous donor?
DeleteI don't understand. Shouldn't the checks be accompanied with a reason why the checks exist at all?