History From Obama And Steyn

There always have been folks who are the naysayers and don’t believe in the future, and don’t believe in trying to do things differently. One of my predecessors, Rutherford B. Hayes, reportedly said about the telephone, “It’s a great invention, but who would ever want to use one?” That’s why he’s not on Mount Rushmore — because he’s looking backwards. He’s not looking forwards. He’s explaining why we can’t do something, instead of why we can do something.

President Obama, Speech on Energy, 15 March 2012

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But obviously Rutherford B. Hayes isn’t as “forward-looking” as a 21st-century president who believes in Jimmy Carter malaise, 1970s Eurostatist industrial policy, 1940s British health-care reforms, 1930s New Deal–sized entitlements premised on mid-20th-century birth rates and life expectancy, and all paid for by a budget with more zeroes than anybody’s seen since the Weimar Republic. If that’s not a shoo-in for Mount Rushmore, I don’t know what is.

Mark Steyn, Obama's History Lesson, NRO, 17 March 2012

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