Little Green Footballs

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Obama smear-o-matic

Is there anything Charles Johnson will not do in order to smear Obama in any friggin way possible? Apparently not, even if it means reverting to a blatant logical fallacy.

(http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/30079)

Obama: Bush is Responsible for Chavez (Bzzt! Wrong!)

On Friday Barack Obama spelled out his Latin America policy (it’s just like his Middle East policy—talk to everybody), and inadvertently supplied another example of his stunning ignorance of history and naive foreign policy ideas. The speech is transcribed at the official Obama campaign web site: Renewing U.S. Leadership in the Americas.
"Since the Bush Administration launched a misguided war in Iraq, its policy in the Americas has been negligent toward our friends, ineffective with our adversaries, disinterested in the challenges that matter in peoples’ lives, and incapable of advancing our interests in the region.

No wonder, then, that demagogues like Hugo Chavez have stepped into this vacuum."
This is pathetic. Hugo Chavez came to power during the Clinton Administration, and was first elected President of Venezuela in 1998, two years before the Bush Administration took office.

I don't exactly follow.. Obama never said anything about Bush being responsible for Chavez' election, but rather that Bush's policies have exacerbated the situation between the US and the Venezuelan Leader, as written in the trascript (which you might as well read in its entirety):

No wonder, then, that demagogues like Hugo Chavez have stepped into this vacuum. His predictable yet perilous mix of anti-American rhetoric, authoritarian government, and checkbook diplomacy offers the same false promise as the tried and failed ideologies of the past. But the United States is so alienated from the rest of the Americas that this stale vision has gone unchallenged, and has even made inroads from Bolivia to Nicaragua. And Chavez and his allies are not the only ones filling the vacuum. While the United States fails to address the changing realities in the Americas, others from Europe and Asia – notably China – have stepped up their own engagement. Iran has drawn closer to Venezuela, and just the other day Tehran and Caracas launched a joint bank with their windfall oil profits.

(...)

And we know that freedom across our hemisphere must go beyond elections. In Venezuela, Hugo Chavez is a democratically elected leader. But we also know that he does not govern democratically. He talks of the people, but his actions just serve his own power. Yet the Bush Administration's blustery condemnations and clumsy attempts to undermine Chavez have only strengthened his hand.

Sounds a lot different than saying: "Bush came into power, and BAM, the Venezuelans elected Chavez because of that". Who does he think he's fooling?

But that wasn't all from the lizard king..

UPDATE at 5/25/08 9:15:04 am:

This is far from the first time Barack Obama has been wrong about a simple historical fact.

I’d like to hear him answer some simple questions about world history, to see exactly how much he really does know. No blow-dried media talking head will ever do this, of course, but I suspect people would be in for a real shock if they knew the depths of his historical ignorance.

Examples, Charlie? One would be nice, and would show you actually give a rat's arse about factual accuracy of your statements..

4 comments:

. said...

Funny Johnson should write this, because I've documented several incidents over the years where it was Johnson himself who demonstrated rank ignorance of history.

Ignorance about Malaysia: http://nodrogsgreatesthits.blogspot.com/2008/03/lgf-flunks-comparative-political.html

Ignorance about Darfur: http://nodrogsgreatesthits.blogspot.com/2008/03/charles-darfur-ignorance-or-knavery.html

Ignorance about Turkey: http://nodrogsgreatesthits.blogspot.com/2008/02/lgf-on-turkey.html

Ignorance about Estonia: http://nodrogsgreatesthits.blogspot.com/2008/02/estonia-through-lens-of-lgf-ignorance.html

And that's only on threads where the Nodrog's presence dominated the proceedings!

Anonymous said...

Interesting to note, while Obama seems to be making a bit of a stretch on this one, Chavez did face potential electoral defeat in 2003, I believe, but a right-wing coup that was unmasked and defeated helped propel him to greater popularity and a safe election win. In time, it became known that the coup was initially backed by the CIA, before they pulled out of it.

Anonymous said...

anon @ 5/27 6:05 PM,

Obama: My Uncle Helped Liberate Auschwitz (Bzzt! Wrong!)

but if you goto http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/samgrahamfelsen/gGB74D and read and watch the video Obama does not mention Auschwitz.

The actual mention of Auschwitz comes from a reporter.


Looks like C.J. and Obambi aren't the only ones with gaffes or the truth...or does Obambi count as a reporter too? Depends on what the word is is?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SV1sxq8mqvA

Kiddo said...

The difference with Johnson is that he writes short posts, some of them posed as questions, and then lets the comments sections take over as a sort of majority consensus proof that his opinion is at least validated. Not that this is unusual for blogging, but the amount of commenters he has is.

And no, there is nothing at this point that Charles and many other related bloggers will not do to smear Obama in any way. I even heard #1 rated (right-wing) radio host Rush Limbaugh give a fine oration on how the Democratic Party is destroying feminism after their recent "treatment" of Hillary, an oration in which he extolled the amazing efforts she has supposedly overcome to get where she is. This is the same man who coined the term "feminazis", has blamed Hillary for everything from looting the White House to being possibly guilty of murder.

No Sphinx, aided by the AM radio talkers, the constant assault on Obama is relentless. The callers are even worse than the hosts. Some at another site I love are just waiting for one of these guys to just slip up and call Obama "uppity".

As for Charles, I'm with Gordon. Charles has had to be aided by letters from leaders on some rather minor slip-ups from time to time. When I get the time, I possibly will track down the times I even wrote to him over some embarrassing mistakes. Charles rides a wave researched by others, he produces nothing original other than the technical things that keep LGF running. But he produces nothing else other than one story that hit the media ages ago.

What do you expect though? His site is manned by the exact people Obama referred to as "bitter"...LOL. Now they're actually proud of it. I doubt it's just LGF either, I mean, have we checked on RELIAPUNDIT lately? He's got to be at near cardiac arrest by now.