-By Warner Todd Huston
This weekend Obama adviser David Axelrod gave us a perfect example of the art of empty demagoguery. Comments made by Axelrod concerning Obama’s state of the union speech shows an over statement meant to mask the truth in order to evoke sympathy for his boss, the President. Sadly, the truth is the victim here.
The Associated Press reported that Axelrod was saying that Obama has had to come to expect “unusual outbursts” from Republicans during his speeches. Axelrod tried to make it seem as if Obama is the only President that’s ever dealt with such “outbursts” from the opposing party during his speeches. Axelrod’s goal is to paint Republicans as somehow outside the bounds of normal behavior.
Referring to the reaction that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito exhibited during the state of the union speech, Axelrod told the AP:
Axelrod says that “in this weird political season, we have become accustomed to unusual outbursts” in the House during presidential speeches.
The AP helped Axelrod with it’s own addition to the pity party for Obama by adding:
In September, GOP Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina shouted “You lie” during Obama’s health care speech to Congress.
The truth is, though, that every president has been faced with similar treatment. Obama’s experience is in no way unusual. In 2005, for instance, President George Bush was booed by Democrats during one of his state of the union speeches. Even as far back as Ronald Reagan Democrats were unruly during the state of the union address. The truth is this is not unusual behavior at all.
So for Axelrod to drum up a pity party for Obama as if he’s the only president that’s been so put upon is not only pure spin, but it’s an outright lie. It’s demagoguery plain and simple.
Sadly, this sort of lies passed off as political analysis is itself the sort of behavior we’ve come to expect from Washington.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, TheRealityCheck.org, RedState.com, Human Events Magazine, AmericanDailyReview.com, and the New Media Journal, among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events and is currently the co-host of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Conservatism” heard on BlogTalkRadio. Warner is also the editor of the Cook County Page for RedCounty.com.
He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of PubliusForum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
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As HL Mencken famously said, “the demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he know to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.”
This is the essence of the Democrat Party and the Democrat playbook. And Axelrod and Obama fit the description of the demagogue perfectly.