You know, President Obama is such a constructive guy. Why, he's a veritable Mr. Sunshine like Chicago Cubs baseball Hall of Famer Ernie Banks. He hardly ever goes after presidential opponent Mitt Romney with harsh criticism. When he does, it's a "rare swipe."
That's what Jim Kuhnhenn at the Associated Press told his readers yesterday in his coverage ("New day, old bickering on taxes between Obama, GOP") of the President's weekly radio address and related matters. Kuhnhenn, who between shifts as a reporter must live in a hermetically sealed cave, wrote the following:
The dictionary Kuhnhenn uses must have a definitions of "rare" which differs considerably from the one I typically consult (rare -- "coming or occurring far apart in time; unusual; uncommon"; swipe -- "an unexpected criticism of someone or something while discussing another subject").
A Google web search on [whitehouse.gov "my opponent"] (typed exactly as indicated between brackets) returns 15 results, all carrying July dates. 14 of the 15 contain criticisms of "my opponent" (the exception was on the day of the Aurora, Colorado massacre). What follows are the first five relevant items listed.
July 19 ("Remarks by the President at Campaign Event" in Jacksonville, FL) -- "Now, my opponent doesn’t just want to keep these tax cuts, he wants to cut those taxes by another $5 trillion, including a 25 percent tax cut for every millionaire in the country. ... Now, hold on, it gets better. (Laughter.) To pay for this, he plans to gut things like job training and financial aid for college, and potentially raise taxes on the middle class -- on you."
July 17 ("Remarks by the President at Campaign Event in San Antonio, TX") -- "My opponent and his allies in Congress, they believe that prosperity comes from the top down. They believe that if we keep in place the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and then we add on top of that another $5 trillion of tax cuts -- most of which would go to people who don’t need tax cuts and, frankly, aren't even asking for them -- if we do all that, even if it means gutting education investments, even if it means slashing transportation, even if it means ..."
July 24 ("Remarks by the President at a Campaign Event" in Oakland, California) -- "My opponent’s entire plan, his whole plan for economic renewal, is more tax cuts for the wealthy. ... eliminating regulations for banks and corporations that we put in place after the crisis. ... Cutting more investments in things like education and research."
July 14 ("Remarks by the President at a Campaign Event" in Glen Allen, Virginia) -- "See, my opponent and his allies in Congress, they believe in a top-down economics. They believe that if we spend trillions of dollars on tax cuts -- mostly for the wealthy -- even if we have to pay for it by gutting education, or gutting job training programs, or gutting investments in basic research, or turning Medicare into a voucher system, or increasing middle-class taxes -- that if we do that, somehow all of you are going to benefit."
July 14 ("Remarks by the President at Campaign Event" in Clifton, Virginia) -- "My opponent and his congressional allies, they believe in what I call top-down economics. ... Their basic view is that if we cut taxes trillions of dollars, mostly for those at the very top -- even if it means cutting education funding, even if it means cutting basic research, even if it means underfunding our infrastructure, and even if it means making Medicare a voucher system -- that somehow that’s going to be good for everybody."
The other nine results returned by the Google search are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. Each of them contains "swipes" at Romney.
Rare, schmare, Jim.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
