2012 WTF #25: When is a “Quote” Not a “Quote”? When Given by President Obama

2012 WTF #25: When is a “Quote” Not a “Quote”? When Given by President Obama –

Does it bother anybody else that President Obama “quoted” two republicans in the last week in such a way as to draw ire by not actually quoting what they said but by actually paraphrasing what one person said and calling it a “quote”, and by quoting the other out of context?

OBAMA SAYS:

Earlier this week during a speech at the University of North Carolina, Mr. Obama said:

“I’m going to quote this because I know you guys will think I’m making it up, she (Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.)) said she had ‘very little tolerance for people who tell me they graduate with debt because there’s no reason for that.’”

Which would be outrageous, except it’s not quite what she said.

ACTUAL QUOTE:

For whatever reason, President Obama chose to leave out a couple of key words in his “quote” (making it a paraphrase, not a quote as he stated) because what she actually said while on the G. Gordon Liddy radio show was that she had “very little tolerance for people who tell me that they graduate with $200,000 of debt or even $80,000 of debt because there’s no reason for that”.

It looks to me like she was saying you could choose a lower cost education and not graduate with $200K in debt if you chose to (nobody MADE you go to an ivy league college just because they accepted you), not that she thought graduating with ANY debt was bad.

In that interview she goes on to say that she reminds people that the Declaration of Independence promises life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness — stressing the word “pursuit.” Adding that “You don’t sit on your butt and have it dumped in your lap” Amen, sister!

OBAMA SAYS:

Then at the University of Iowa, Obama said, “You’ve got one member of Congress who compared these student loans — I’m not kidding here — to a ‘stage-three cancer of socialism’”.

No Mr. President, you’re not “kidding”, just misleading.

ACTUAL QUOTE:

Now, even though the president didn’t name him by name, this comment can be traced back to a comment made by Congressman Todd Akin, Missouri, in a recent debate with Republican senate candidates. When asked about the student loan issue, Akin slammed the government for taking over college loans in a 2009 bill.

“America has got the equivalent of stage 3 cancer of socialism because the federal government is tampering in all kinds of stuff it has no businesses tampering in,” he said.

So it appears his comment about “stage 3 cancer of socialism” is NOT about student loans, per se, but about the government taking over the student loan program as part of a number of national debt increasing moves instead of leaving it in the hands of the financial institutes better suited to handle financial matters.

I’m sorry, but if you are going to “quote” somebody, it’s supposed to be word for word, and hopefully in context, not mostly what they said, reworded in a way to fit your agenda.

COME ON ALREADY, I AM CALLING SHENANIGANS HERE!