Brian, I’m sure Hayes’s publicist is grateful for any publicity old Rutherford can get these days, but it looks like the Obama administration doesn’t vet its quotations any better than it vets its investments in green energy.
Besides, Obama does have half a point. After all, if you go back to the 19th century, the greatest innovators were not the Republicans, nor even Obama’s party (which took a bit of convincing to abandon its support of slavery), but the Whigs, who paid the price in ridicule that forward thinkers always have to endure. Why, did you know that “President Millard Fillmore was criticized for indulging in ‘monarchical luxury’ when he had a bathtub installed in the White House”?