In yet another example of the juvenile mental capacity of Mitt Romney, he is once again obsessing over a single word extracted from a speech by President Obama. This time Romney is flabbergasted that Obama would encourage supporters to vote by advising them to eschew negative outbursts and direct that energy to getting themselves and others to the polls.
The now familiar refrain is “Don’t boo, vote,” to which he added “Voting is the best revenge.” Romney appears to be unable to comprehend the meaning of that statement. He thinks it has something to do with actual vengeance and retaliation. In fact, it is a paraphrasing of the well-known aphorism “The best revenge is living well,” that first appeared in the Hebrew scripture, the Talmud, over two thousand years ago. It’s meaning is unmistakably positive in that it advocates a rejection of vengeful behavior in favor of a more productive focus on improving one’s own lot in life.
Nevertheless, Romney latched onto these remarks like a frenzied piranha. He demonstrated his inability to employ rational reasoning skills and his preference for childish tantrums and name-calling. He literally escalated his rhetoric to another attack on Obama’s patriotism by misquoting the President and then countering the misquote saying, “Vote for revenge? Let me tell you what I’d like to tell you: Vote for love of country.” So Romney thinks that Obama and his supporters (at least half of the population) don’t love their country. That’s not really a surprising position for Romney who also said that half the nation are moochers that it’s not his job to care about.
The Romney campaign has made it their mission to mangle the President’s words throughout this election cycle. It is a strategy that he resorts to because he is unable to make a positive argument for his candidacy. Here are some examples of the low-brow context mangling that Romney has made the centerpiece of his campaign:
“You didn’t build that.” This is a deliberate misquoting of Obama who was actually referring to roads and bridges, not the private businesses that Romney has tried to imply were the subject of the remarks.
“The private sector is doing fine.” This is another misrepresentation where Obama was correctly making a relative comparison of the private sector, which has grown over the past three years, to the public sector, which has been shrinking.
“We tried our plan and it worked.” Here Romney deliberately asserted that Obama was referencing his own record and implying that it had achieved complete success. In fact, Obama has consistently said that more needs to be done and this comment was plainly referencing the success of the Clinton era policies as opposed to the failure of the GOP’s years under Bush’s policies.
“[Obama] removed the requirement of work from welfare.” Romney made this accusation that is directly refuted by the facts. What Obama did was to permit waivers for states that could affirm their progress in moving people from welfare to work, and allowing them flexibility to enhance their programs. It’s a modification that Romney himself had requested when he was governor of Massachusetts.
“I actually believe in redistribution.” This was purposefully clipped from a much longer statement wherein Obama was praising entrepreneurs and the free market, while also seeking to improve the parts of government that provide services like schools, roads, etc.
Of course, Fox News has been instrumental in helping Romney to advance these phony messages. And that is true in this most recent case as well. The “revenge” scandal has been plastered all over Fox News and its web sites. They have no problem with these infantile tactics because it fits so perfectly with the stunted maturity level of their remedial audience.
For the record, Obama is in good company paraphrasing the “best revenge” meme. Here are some others who have found it to be a useful vehicle for expressing a positive course of action:
- The Talmud: The best revenge is living well.
- Benazir Bhutto: Democracy is the best revenge.
- Frank Sinatra: The best revenge is massive success.
- Ivana Trump: Looking good is the best revenge.
- Marcus Aurelius: The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.
That last one is particularly appropriate. Obama would do well to heed that advice and be as unlike Mitt Romney as possible. And here is a handy, shareable version of this information to disseminate to your friends and family to inspire them to vote on Tuesday:
Well said. I have to say I liked best when you wrote, ‘They have no problem with these infantile tactics because it fits so perfectly with the stunted maturity level of their remedial audience.’ I believe this shows a campaign(Romney’s) to be desperate and flailing as a drowner would.
Mark: not sure where it’s from, but isn’t there also an expression about “no one left to fool”? I like that one.
You liberal jacknuts are all alike. You make excuse after excuse for this dissembling failure of a president while always defending your ridiculous positions by claiming that those who oppose you only do so because they are stupid, immature or remedial. Obama is a vindictive, nasty little man and a complete liar. This clip is just the latest evidence.
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but such tactics only strengthen my resolve never to hide behind the Internet’s wall of name calling. Please be nicer to those who differ from your opinion…I could care less that you are a Republican or whatever, it doesn’t matter, but it’s obvious you disagree with Obama. You have every right to that. I praise you for expressing it, but names, unflattering and false descriptions of the opposition do not warrant being called “jacknuts.” I resent that and it is one of the reasons this political season is so terrible.
The person writing this should spend some time doing research and less time worshiping a liar. While I agree that Mitt is a total piece of crap and that his campaign is willing to do anything to win. (cheating, harassing, threatening, and lying) That doesn’t mean that you can turn a blind eye to the administration that devalued the dollar by over 60 percent, signed the NDAA making it legal to arrest and detain US citizens indefinitely, increased our national debt by 33%, murdered a 16 year old US citizen with a drone bomber without a trial, admits to having a “kill list”, covered up administration complicity in the death of 2 border patrol agents, released a forged federal document (White house lawyers have admitted that the certificate of live birth posted on WhiteHouse.org is fake, this is a felony), relieved General Ham (a respected and decorated soldier whom Obama gave command over all of Africa) of duty for deciding to help a US ambassador after receiving orders from the White House to stand down, and worst of all buying millions of rounds of ammo for every department directly overseen and controlled by the Presidency. The White House refuses to comment on why all this ammo has been purchased.
I’m sure that you (the author of this trash) will lie and say none of this true, or that I’m turning facts on their head, but most likely you will delete (exactly what Obama would do) this post so you don’t have to wake up to the reality that your hero isn’t worth worshiping. You obviously have time so maybe you should start fighting for this country and our constitution, not the man and administration that hates it.
Please don’t take my name as being an insult. Unlike Scotty I very rarely use my actual name or private email on unknown sites, and I never use it when it comes to politics. With the recent executive orders that allow the government to legally data mine the internet and the fact that dissent against the acting Administration can be considered an act of terrorism according to the NDAA (it is written very vaguely and a federal judge has declared it unconstitutional) I feel that it is safer to at least try to protect myself and my family. I have not used my name when discussing politics since the Patriot Act was signed by President Bush. I am not against our current President any more than I was against our last, and will be against our next whether it be President Obama for a second term, or Mitt Romney for a first. My only hope is that you use your site to be fair, and attack all who try to destroy our way of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
How do you know my name is Scotty? Hahaha. Fah Que is a great name though.
It’s hard to respond to your comment because it is a mixture of some things I agree with (NDAA) and somethings that are batshit crazy (White House ammo). But one thing I really hate is when people start their statement by saying that I should do some research. That’s a pointless and insulting insinuation that I haven’t done so and that I’m ignorant of the facts. If you have to begin your argument that way you are proving that you aren’t actually paying attention.
Not white house ammo, Departments under the direct authority of the White House and not congress, including but not limited to: The FDA, EPA, IRS, Department of health and human services, Department of education, National weather service, Department of Homeland Security- 1.4 billion rounds of ammo of which at least 750 million rounds are hollow point 9mm, and the Social Security Administration- 174,000 rounds of hollow point 9mm (they claim they for target practice for their 295 agents) I’m just naming most of them. Claims that the SSA is using them for target practice is shady at best. Hollow points aren’t used for target shooting, they are specificly built to inflict as much harm as possible. If you find yourself confused by something I listed in my previous post, research it. You have the WWW at your finger tips. Don’t use blogs as evidence, dig a little and you’ll find the reports that those blogs are based on. Keep searching for the truth, and don’t post the first MSM article you find that says it isn’t true, they wouldn’t refute it if they hadn’t reported on it earlier.
I read what you wrote, it is completely one sided. It isn’t research if you are only looking at stuff that confirms your beliefs. You do need to do some research. Maybe next time when something doesn’t jive with your hero worship you should dive in deeper instead of just pretending it’s bull.
Congrats.
I’m not encouraging you to do more research because I think you are dumb or ignorant, on the contrary, I think you are intelligent and motivated otherwise I wouldn’t waste my time. (that would just make me a troll) I just think you are being led astray by your hate for Mitt. It’s understandable, there’s a lot to hate, but there is a much more important battle about to take place in this country, and no one can afford to turn a blind eye.
I don’t have a hate for Romney. I have knowledge of him. Why don’t you try to make a rational argument to rebut what I said in this article instead of trying to change the subject to fifty other things? That’s usually a sign that someone doesn’t have a rational argument in the first place.
Make an argument that Obama knows what he’s saying? He doesn’t think anybody deserves the rewards of hard work. (you didn’t build that)The proof is that he is more than willing to pay people to not work as proven by soaring welfare, snap, and disability budgets. Free cellphones? Plus record unemployment durations (99weeks?) and budgets. There’s really no point in arguing what he meant though, it doesn’t matter. If Mitt has a “juvenile mental capacity” for saying these things, what does it say about you to retorting? Your entire “article” was nothing but ranting about how retarded Mitt Romney is. You really think that ranting about stupid MSM talking points is more important than American citizens being murdered by our government without trial with drones? More important than White House lawyers trying to get a federal judge to declare indefinite detention constitutional and those same lawyers refusing to answer a federal judge when ask if there are already Americans being detained? More important than one of our top Generals being relieved of duty for trying to send back up to an embassy under attack after being told to stand down? If you really believe that using quotes politically is more important than what’s going on than you must either be A: employed by News Corp or B: I gave you more credit than you deserve. This will be my last response unless you somehow impress me, and I doubt that will happen. It’s not the first time my optimism has turned into disappointment. My response to your article is just two words, grow up. Bettawfeeq