Arbitrary Quote Tuesday: Abbreviated Politico Edition

[faerieboots]

(Short and sweet, because I have to be up obnoxiously early tomorrow)

So President Obama has said many things in the past four years, and people have paid varying levels of attention to them.   But he said one thing in particular that I think is interesting:

Comments

[londo]

Yeah, I have no idea why anyone would think that quote would haunt him.

Cynical answer

[ratatosk]

One snarky response is that Reagan did more to advance the imperial presidency that Obama benefits from than Clinton did. But the most recent Bush was probably more helpful to Obama in that regard.

[faerieboots]

Yeah if I were going that route I would totally cite the Cheney Doctrine.

The article I read suggested that he originally meant it as a slam on Hillary Clinton, because she was also running in the primary, about how Bill Clinton didn't accomplish enough? I dunno, I don't see it.

[elusiveat]

it could be interpreted as endorsing Reagan (and perhaps certain of his tactics).

Lacking context (i.e. what was the allignment of this top 10 list?) I assumed the reason it would haunt him because Conservatives would assume that he was saying it was bad.

The Reagan administration accomplished a great deal of evil. The most diabolical bit is that a lot of people loved having evil done to them because of Reagan's charisma (at least, I've been told that he had charisma).

[faerieboots]

So, the article is here: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1012/81895.html

Judging from the introduction, the tone is neutral-toward-left but the author is discussing voters generally, and likely specifically talking about swing voters.

Of course, that just leaves me even more confused, since I think "mistakenly believes he is endorsing/not endorsing Reagan" is the most reasonable construction (even though it's not what the article itself says). I would assume that swing voters have less reason to feel strongly about Reagan, what with the being swing voters.

Also, no argument from me about the extent to which Reagan used his charisma powers for evil. >:P

[elusiveat]

I have the impression that Reagan popularized neoliberal ideology by selling it to independents. I suppose that a lot of those independents are Republicans now, but I bet a lot of them voted for Clinton as well...

[cos]

I don't see why this should be a harmful quote. I also agree that it's probably true.

[faerieboots]

Among other horrible things. >:P

(I have a friend whose entire reaction to learning Reagan died was--and I quote--"Thanks for the Iran Contra scandal, you fucker.")