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The Campaign Spot

Election-driven news and views . . . by Jim Geraghty.


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Obama Cites a Bridge, Has One to Sell You

Credit CBS News for recognizing this bit of factually-challenged demagoguery from President Obama:

“According to the Republican budget that was passed, for example, we would have to eliminate transportation funding by a third,” he said. “You remember when that bridge in Minnesota collapsed with all those people on it and there was a big human cry, how could this happen in America?”

Mr. Obama noted that the United States has been given a “D” grade for its infrastructure and said U.S. roads and bridges are “deteriorating.” He added: “We cut transportation by another third and what’s going to happen to America? We’re just going to have potholes everywhere? We’re just gonna have bridges collapsing everywhere?”

While experts say America’s aging infrastructure is a significant problem, the bridge collapse in Minnesota, which killed 13 people, was found to have been caused primarily by a design flaw.

Does Obama not know that he’s citing a collapse that wasn’t related to transportation funding? Or does he not care?

I would say “the Minnesota bridge collapse was caused by budget cuts” can join “the gun show loophole enabled the Virginia Tech shooter” and “Bush’s plastic turkey for the troops” among the most incessantly-cited myths in politics.

Tags: Barack Obama

New on The Campaign Spot. . .


COMMENTS   9

EXPAND  

mframn
   04/19/11 13:11

Gov. Walker eliminated the cow speed rail proj here in WI & asked to use the funds to repair roads & bridges in need of maint. & upgrades, no dice. The feds withdrew the funds.

Guess the only use the Pres. has for roads & bridges is for demagoguery.

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Dan B.
   04/19/11 13:23

Did he really say "human cry"?

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   04/19/11 13:57

Isn't it "hue and cry"?

Whoever entered the speech into the Tele-prompter must have been the same person who told him to pronounce "corpman" as "corpse-man"

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   04/19/11 14:00

Add the 'outing' of super-secret, double-naught spy, Valerie Plame, as another among the most incessantly-cited myths in politics.

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   04/19/11 16:45

Governments at all levels are spending more and more and every year the roads are getting worse and worse.

Maybe because 60% of taxes in many county and city locales are going to wages and benefits of the union lackeys that turn right back around and support the politician that keeps pumping up thier wages and benefits.

Conclusion; No real work is getting done.

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   04/19/11 17:27

"Words, just words." They lose all meaning as soon as they leave the teleprompter.

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Bobby Houston
   04/19/11 20:49

Your wasted money by the trillions. In every blog comment I made 2 years ago I ended by saying, buy silver and gold. I'm glad I did. Doubled and tripled my money so far and the best is yet to come.

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   04/19/11 21:02

The stimulus was for fixing infrastructure, right? "Shovel ready jobs" and all. Two years ago we borrowed roughly the GDP of the Netherlands to fix infrastructure.

And it was not only shovel ready, but "targeted and temporary." So all of our infrastructure has to be fixed, right? Because if the amount we borrowed to do it wasn't enough, there never will be enough.

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   04/20/11 01:15

@Reno_Dave

It is neither "corpman" nor "corpse-man."

It is in fact "Corpsman." A US Navy Medic is called a Corpsman.

I served in the US Marine Corps

Pronounced "Core-man" or Marine "Core."

You are probably unfamiliar with spelling, but the Commander-In-Chief over the military should be familiar with the branches, rank, and structure. Hmmm, unless he is simply a community organizer, and Campaigner-In-Thief.

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