The Stench Of Desperation

The right wing is in full desperation mode and it's only February. There's a saying about "don't let them see you sweat," but Sykes has such bad pit stains that he will have to buy a whole closetful of new shirts.

Sykes and others in the right wing echo chamber is trying to conflate some minor campaign speeches into something their not.

They try to act all indignant about a speech (actually two speeches) given my Michelle Obama. They accuse Obama of plagiarism. In fact, one right wing blogger stretches the limit of credibility by accusing Obama of lifting lines from a movie.

Let's look at these.

Thanks to Sir James the Wiggy One, we have a video contrasting the two speeches given by Micelle Obama. He also points out, accurately, it's no big deal. It's not. Even if one wanted to take her literally, lets look at the past twenty-five years. The most recent have been with Bush the younger who has led us into Iraq, the biggest deficit ever, alienated most of the world, and given all our money to his cronies in Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Whatever.

Before that we have eight years (up to 15 for those keeping count), we had Clinton and the stained dress. Eight years of political bickering and partisanship so fierce, one could only be glad that they outlawed dueling generations ago.

The four years before that was Bush the elder (19years), who's only real contribution was giving great soundbites for Dana Carvey skits on Saturday Night Live. But to give him (Bush, not Carvey) credit, at least he had enough sense not to invade Iraq.

And finally, before that we had the Gipper. At the risk of treading on the toes of the right's great icon, what did he do besides run up the deficit to record levels (until Bush II) and have great speech writers. The right like to give him credit for the fall of the USSR, but he only saw the end of something that took decades to accomplish, but he did not do it all by himself.

Sure there were some good events, but not the same kind of passion that we are seeing now.

As for the plagiarism, if you can even call it that, even some conservatives are pulling back on that stretch. And there are even legal questions if you can plagiarize a speech.

And for the movie business? A commenter on that blog points out that Obama's speech came before the movie was made. Obama must have had a time machine, went forward in time, not to bring back wealth, information that could help all mankind, or the cure for cancer. No, according to the right, he must have taken this secret time machine forward in time to get soundbites.

And what about Reagan? Sykes plays an intro on his show on a regular basis which is a soundbite of Reagan telling some tax increasers, to "Go ahead. Make my day." Funny, I don't recall hearing anyone complaining about that one.

But if Sykes and company want to have their accusations and allegations taken as anything more than a punchline for a bar joke, I will be glad to give them the gravitas that they crave.

Just as soon as they post seven years worth of Bushisms, admit Bush lied on so many things, like Iraq, the cost of Medicare Part D, Katrina, Rumsfeld's firing, and the so called benefits of the so called tax cuts. They will also need to post about Reagan stealing lines. About the truth of Reaganomics, and how it did nothing but widen the gap between the rich and the poor and drive up the deficit.

Then, and only then, will I give more than a grain of salt to their desperate attempts at relevancy.