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Obama Slays Straw Men At Poverty Summit

Obama Slays Straw Men At Poverty Summit

Moral victory?

When scanning the spectrum of President Obama’s presidency, it’s difficult to find anything that he does with any kind of competence or skill.

That said, when it comes to erecting straw man arguments, it’s hard to find an equal to President Obama. As demonstrated before, Obama routinely engages in this practice by making a claim and then presenting an alternative or a solution to a problem that does not exist.

The President recently participated in a panel discussion on poverty with Arthur Brooks from The American Enterprise Institute, Georgetown University President Joe DeGioia, and Robert Putnam of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard; during his remarks, Obama raised scenarios that simply did not exist. The first was a recall of the good old days when rich people and poor people co-mingled in the same neighborhoods, contrasted with the current “reality” where successful people separate themselves and thus have no clue about life in the middle class:

Later on he is asked about the role of faith based organizations in dealing with poverty, and while he acknowledges their role in combatting poverty, he makes the claim that they spend more time talking about abortion and gay marriage than they do serving the poor:

President Obama doesn’t mention any of these organizations by name. His goal was merely to take a shot at organizations that don’t agree with him on gay marriage and abortion. The effectiveness of aiding the poor is not hindered by faith based organizations taking on certain political and social issues. The Catholic Church doesn’t have problems servicing the poor and less fortunate through their network of charities despite their opposition to the birth control mandate.

Americans gave over $335 billion to charities in 2013. Some of those charities are churches and organizations owned by churches. Despite some of them opposing abortion and gay marriage, they still do a great job servicing the poor.

President Obama might want to just focus on that, instead of erecting a straw man he can then destroy in order to proclaim some kind of moral “victory.”

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Comments

Greg Toombs | May 13, 2015 at 4:22 pm

Obama is a serial killer of straw men.

legacyrepublican | May 13, 2015 at 4:36 pm

So, the bottom line is that at the poverty conference, Obama offered one “poor” excuse after another.

“The first was a recall of the good old days when rich people and poor people co-mingled in the same neighborhoods, contrasted with the current “reality” where successful people separate themselves and thus have no clue about life in the middle class.”

Which would certainly be true of him and his Hollyweird and Silly-con Valley buds.

But it also just exposes his thumping ignorance of this country and its history.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_End_%281937_film%29

There was never a time in America when the “rich” and “poor” co-mingled in the same neighborhoods.

So, either he’s lying or an idiot. I pick lying.

    C. Lashown in reply to Ragspierre. | May 13, 2015 at 4:57 pm

    re: “There was never a time in America when the “rich” and “poor” co-mingled in the same neighborhoods.”

    I predict via my great insight that Obama plans on fixing this injustice. His path is laid out, the course clear, enrage the entire world against America and the rich and poor can share the same soup line, bomb shelter and mass grave.

    Obama is a destroyer, this is his credentials – Destruction. Like a tornado, a hurricane or a flood comes through the countryside – a pathway of destruction follows. Years later something else has risen up from the broken homes and broken lives. That is the only thing Obama is really good at, destruction.

      Ragspierre in reply to C. Lashown. | May 13, 2015 at 5:49 pm

      Actually, Barracula and the Collective DO have a “Master Plan” (guess who gets to be the MASTER?) for remaking how and where we live.

      Naturally, choice has very little to do with it. They INTEND to force you and I back into the central city. See, living in the ‘burbs or in the country is a sin. We left, and took our money with us, and that was just wrong. You and I can’t be allowed to get away with that.

      healthguyfsu in reply to C. Lashown. | May 14, 2015 at 12:39 pm

      Pilgrims and Indians maybe?

    Greg Toombs in reply to Ragspierre. | May 13, 2015 at 6:07 pm

    You can choose both, you know.

      Ragspierre in reply to Greg Toombs. | May 13, 2015 at 6:09 pm

      Yah, but he isn’t an idiot. Not in the “blameless ’cause he ain’t got it” sense.

      He knows what he wants, and he’s doing it. That’s evil.

    Neo in reply to Ragspierre. | May 13, 2015 at 7:58 pm

    Hanlon’s razor

    Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

    Exiliado in reply to Ragspierre. | May 13, 2015 at 8:29 pm

    Can I pick BOTH ?

“The first was a recall of the good old days when rich people and poor people co-mingled in the same neighborhoods…”

Well, technically live-in servants and, well, slaves did live in the same neighborhoods as their employers and masters. Often in the same house.

Henry Hawkins | May 13, 2015 at 5:02 pm

I keep my poor people in shacks down by the river, made of beaver sticks and rejected backy leaves.

Progressives spend more time talking about abortion and gay marriage than they do serving the poor.

Obama is more responsible for hay fever and other allergies than Spring time. His straw men are legion.

I bet you a thousand bucks that single mom waitress is driving a car worth 2/3 her annual income with a fat 5 year loan @ 8% (or zero percent because she bought it new). I’ll also bet she has a nicer TV than me, a nicer cell phone than me, and has gone on more vacations than me in the past 5 years. I’ll also bet she has a 5 dollar coffee drink 2-3 times per week.

I’ll bet she would be fine in retirement if 1/4 of her entertainment budget were directed into savings instead of crap made in China.

One thing poor working families ever go w/out are trips to Disneyland, car loans and tons of crap.

This is one thing we feel extremely bitter about as we shell out tens of thousands in prepaid taxes every year and live on less in take home $ than “poor working class families” and really really sweat about losing our employer’s health insurance plans (thanks to Obama).

    Andy in reply to Andy. | May 13, 2015 at 5:55 pm

    In other words, my opinion of poor people is they stay poor by continuing to do poor people stuff. They don’t want to live like rich people, because that is freaking hard. They are fine with massive consumer debt, they are fine having no money saved for retirement, and they are fine with making it someone else’s problem to support them in their old age. They generally live for today and themselves. Yes it’s an overgeneralization- but truer than not. That describes every grunt I’ve ever worked with as a laborer on construction sites in my college days. It includes every employee I’ve ever had. I’m sure somewhere, Obama’s strawman poor person exists who does “everything” right and gets ahead… but I call bullshit.

    Save 100 bucks a month from the time you are in your early 20’s to 60 and you’re a millionaire.

    Greg Toombs in reply to Andy. | May 13, 2015 at 6:09 pm

    From The Heritage Foundation and various government reports:[8]

    – Eighty percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, at the beginning of the War on Poverty, only about 12 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.
    – Nearly three-quarters have a car or truck; 31 percent have two or more cars or trucks.[9]
    – Nearly two-thirds have cable or satellite television.
    – Two-thirds have at least one DVD player, and a quarter have two or more.
    – Half have a personal computer; one in seven has two or more computers.
    – More than half of poor families with children have a video game system such as an Xbox or PlayStation.
    – Forty-three percent have Internet access.
    – Forty percent have a wide-screen plasma or LCD TV.
    – A quarter have a digital video recorder system such as a TIVO.
    – Ninety-two percent of poor households have a microwave.

      Paul in reply to Greg Toombs. | May 13, 2015 at 7:16 pm

      ^^^^ THIS ^^^^^ right here exposes the Big Lie of the “War on Poverty.” The “poor” in this country are fabulously rich when compared to most other people around the world, and just about everybody who has lived in the history of this planet.

      Nobody is starving here (yeah, I know there are some cracked out homeless people who are too jacked up on drugs to have the sense to eat), so we talk about “Food Disadvantaged.” The progs race to get every kid in America eating three meals a day “for free” at school, and to get as many families as possible on SNAP cards. Why? Because who in the hell will vote for somebody who is literally “taking food off poor people’s plates?” Dependency is the name of the game. Screw your work ethic. You didn’t build that!

      See, the great thing about “poverty” is that it’s a moving goal which the progs will always peg as relative to average income. Figure that one out mathematically… if “poverty” is always a percentage of average income then there is only ONE way to eliminate poverty.

      See, it’s not about bringing the poor up, it’s about bringing the rich down, to put their necks under the jackboot of the progs.

      Equality of OUTCOME is the goal. And for that to happen the government must focus on actively hampering those who are smarter, stronger and work harder. Your parents worked hard and saved to help you get ahead? Screw that “rich privilege.” Masta Gubmint will take that money and decide who gets it (after they take their cut, of course!). Anyone who does not bow down, kiss the ring and suckle the teat of the Government must be brought to heel.

      Or maybe one day we’ll all go John Galt. Or maybe one day we just get it on again.