The Most Ridiculous Headline Of The Day

This one, from ABC, should take an award:

Obama: More Moderate Republican Than Socialist

Now, in fairness to ABC, this is based on a quote from Obama during an interview:

President Barack Obama believes that if he were president 25 years ago, his economic policies would make him a moderate Republican.

During an interview with Noticias Univision 23, the network's Miami affiliate newscast, Obama pushed back against the accusation made in some corners of south Florida's Cuban-American and Venezuelan communities that he wants to instill a socialist economic system in the U.S. The president said he believes few actually believe that.

"I don't know that there are a lot of Cubans or Venezuelans, Americans who believe that," Obama said. "The truth of the matter is that my policies are so mainstream that if I had set the same policies that I had back in the 1980s, I would be considered a moderate Republican."

But in condemnation of ABC, they make their report simply taking Obama's quote at face value, without putting it in any historic context. And there is a lot of context.

The 1980's were the time of Ronald Reagan, massive tax cuts, a bull market, the reinvigoration of America, all coupled with serious attempts to reign in regulations and decrease the size of government. I don't know of a single "moderate Republican" in the 1980's who would have supported a single policy of Obama's.

In other words, Obama's statement is about as counterfactual as one could get, though no one reading the report without the benefit of having lived through the 1980's would understand that.  And it does give ABC a headline they like.  What horseshit.

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