Big Lizards:Blog:Entry “Laughter Is the Best Rebuke”

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June 21, 2011

Laughter Is the Best Rebuke

Hatched by Dafydd

One must presume that a particular word in yesterday's transcript from la Casa Blanca (via Drudge) is simply a "word-o". In this section of his speech to (who else?) the Democratic National Committee -- does he ever preach to anyone but the choir these days? -- President Barack H. Obama is extolling his administration's exemplary performance on the economy... starting from the worst economy since the depths of the Republican Great Depression, which the Obamunist inherited from his Republican predecessor, and taking it to the powerhouse and envy of the world it is today:

It is wonderful to see all of you. I've got a lot of friends in the room here. People who knew me before anybody could pronounce my name. (Laughter.) People who knew me before I had gray hair. (Laughter.) It is wonderful to see those of you who’ve been friends for a long time, and it’s wonderful to see new friends here as well.

What I'd like to do is to make some very brief remarks at the top and then have a chance to take a few questions, because that will give us a chance to have a dialogue, and you might have some suggestion that we haven’t thought of. And it’s one of the great things about these kinds of events is people here have so much expertise in so many different areas that it’s a wonderful thing for me to be able to pick your brain as well as just you guys hearing me chatter.

We are obviously going through one of the toughest periods in American history. We went through the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, and immediately after being elected, I had to take a series of very difficult steps to rescue ourselves from the brink. We had lost 4 million jobs in the six months before I was sworn in; lost another 4 million during the period probably six months after I was elected. And so as a consequence, we had to do some things that we didn’t expect we would have to do, just to save the economy -- stabilize the financial system, make sure that states and local governments didn’t have to lay off police officers and cops and firefighters. We had to save an auto industry. I never expected to be a automobile executive. (Laughter.)

As a consequence of that swift, decisive, and sometimes difficult period, we were able to take an economy that was shrinking by about 6 percent and create an economy that is now growing, and has grown steadily now over many consecutive quarters. Over the last 15 months we’ve created over 2.1 million private sector jobs. (Laughter.)

I'm sure the laff line will very swiftly be "corrected" to (Applause), assuming the Obama administration is slightly more attuned to the internet than it is to the functioning and discontents of the economy itself. But until it is, it stands as a witty retort to the fundamental absurdity of his incessant, and increasingly mocked, victory laps around the Oval Orifice.

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, June 21, 2011, at the time of 9:48 AM