Obama Slays Another Straw Man

-- by Micheal

In remarks during a speech in Maryland on Thursday, Obama attempts to make himself look progressive by besting a fake foe.  Obama claimed that president Rutherford B. Hayes failed to get his image carved on Mount Rushmore because he thought the new telephone technology was a waste of time.

Really? That's the best Obama could do? Dig up an obscure president from the 1870s to prove how forward-thinking HE is? That would be pretty lame, even if it were true, which it is not.

First off, there are only four presidents on Mount Rushmore. When it was begun in the 1920s, there had been 34 presidents. That meant that 30 of them did not make the cut. So how significant is it, really, to NOT be on Mount Rushmore? Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt were selected because they either protected the republic, or expanded it. Technophilia was never a criteria.

Second, there is no record that Hayes ever said 'It's a great invention but who would ever want to use one?'.  Like many a famous line, it's more urban legend than real history.  As a matter of fact, Nan Card, curator of the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center said there's no record Hayes ever said that, and that Hayes was actually the first president to have a telephone in the White House.

So, Obama tries to show how forward thinking he is, by citing a fake "failure" of a minor president from over 100 years ago, with false facts.

Lame as it is, it will probably work for Obama. To paraphrase Santayana: Those who are clueless about history, are doomed to be duped by politicians who fabricate it.