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“They don’t have a single idea that’s different from George Bush’s ideas — not one.
“Instead, they’re betting on amnesia. (Laughter.) That’s what they’re counting on. They’re counting on that you all forgot. They think that they can run the okey-doke on you. (Laughter.) Bamboozle you. (Laughter.)”
— President Barack Obama at a recent DNC Finance Event¹
Betting on amnesia? Good bet? Bad bet? Frank Rich provides some analysis.
Excerpted from “How to Lose an Election Without Really Trying” By FRANK RICH, Op-Ed Columnist, The New York Times, Published: August 7, 2010
[SIZE="+2"]B[/SIZE]etting on amnesia is almost always a winning, not a losing, wager in America. Angry demonstrators at health care town-hall meetings didn’t remember that Medicare is a government program, and fewer and fewer voters of both parties recall that the widely loathed TARP was a Bush administration creation supported by the G.O.P. Congressional leadership. So many Republicans don’t know Obama is a natural citizen — 41 percent in a poll last week — that we must (charitably) assume some of them have forgotten that Hawaii was granted statehood. The G.O.P. chairman is sufficiently afflicted with amnesia that he matter-of-factly regaled an audience with the counterfactual observation that the war in Afghanistan, Bush’s immediate response to 9/11, began under Obama.
It's disappointing but betting on American amnesia is smart and President Obama is on the wrong side of that bet.
“And I do want to point out, when you get in your car, when you go forward, what do you do? You put it in “D.” When you want to go back, what do you do? (Laughter.) You put it in “R.” We [don't] want to go into reverse back in the ditch. We want to go forwards. We got to put it in “D.” (Applause.)”
— President Barack Obama²
Frank Rich reminds us, “Elections, the cliché goes, are about the future, not the past.”
The challenge for President Obama and Democrats is not to remind Americans of the disastrous consequences of recent conservative leadership in this country but to lay out a progressive agenda focused on putting America back to work again. Everything else is optional, even distracting from the only meaningful message.
“It's the economy, stupid.” — James Carville³
On this topic, there should be no amnesia whatsoever.