“Creative” Emails


I routinely hear from an old college pal--let's call him Murph--who delights in forwarding emails dedicated to the failure of President Obama and his administration. I know that Murph and his cohorts consider themselves patriots and, as such, believe that since the end justifies the means, facts and truth are irrelevant, Several emails ago, I started going directly to Snopes.com or FactCheck.org and forwarding the results to Murph, suggesting he pass it on to the folks who emailed him, as well as his own substantial list, of which I am a member. So far, this hasn't happened nor has he acknowledged or apologized for misleading me so callously.

Today, he didn't let me down. How could he know I was writing this article? Maybe the Forces of Truth guided him to furnish me even more damning evidence. This email has Lee Iacocca, former CEO of Chrysler, saying:

“... Where the hell is our outrage with this so called president?...We've got a gang of tax cheating clueless leftists trying to steer our ship of state right over a cliff...Throw all the Democrats out along with Obama!”

Supposedly, these are excerpts from the book, “Where Have All The Leaders Gone ?” by Lee Iacocca with Catherine Whitney, New York, Scribner, 2007 (notice the date—Obama wasn't inaugurated until 2009). If you read what Mr. Iacocca actually said, you will find that his criticism was directed at the Bush administration. The email creators cleverly converted the references over to Obama and the Democrats so that “... a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff,...” becomes “... a gang of tax cheating clueless leftists trying to steer our ship of state right over a cliff...”

The following quote from an interview by David G. Allen for West Virginia Media, indicates a different Iacocca opinion:

"... I've seen this Obama fellow in action and his breadth of knowledge is so great. He can run the Fed. He knows where we need troops. He can get tax cheats to pay up and perform government service. He knows which CEOs to fire and which CEOs deserve bonuses...”

The email that first prompted me to do this piece contained an article written by Dr. David Kaiser, a highly respected historian, currently a professor in the Strategy and Policy Department of the Naval War College. The article compared Barack Obama and his agenda to Adolph Hitler and the birth of the Third Reich. Unlike the Iacocca quote, in which words and even entire paragraphs were altered, the Kaiser article was not even written by Dr. Kaiser--he says so in his blog. He further states that the views attributed to him are mostly contrary to his real opinions. This is significant--as is Iacocca's above-quoted praise for Obama.

Since there is a plethora of popular and articulate Obama detractors, like Ben Stein, why utilize people who have shown an affinity for the President? My opinion...the email creators are pranksters at heart. How audacious to use two of Obama's fans to discredit him. What perfect irony!





Another question: Why risk embarrassing “The Cause” by employing outrageous lies that can be so easily exposed with a few keystrokes? Does their Party promote this behavior? The Iran-Contra and Watergate fiascos were blatant enough to make one expect that a contrite Republican Party would have emerged, vowing to sin no more, but that didn't happen. The sin of “Bearing false witness” should never be condoned by a political group priding itself on “values.”

The Grand Old Party of Dirksen, Goldwater, and Eisenhower is gone, replaced by political misfits saddled with “bumper sticker” mentalities. It is disturbing to see the substantial numbers of people involved in the viral spread of these two fraudulent emails. Either they were too lazy to verify the content or they were complicit in the subterfuge.

I miss the old Republicans. They were people of principle, usually putting our country's welfare ahead of their politics. They battled the Democrats ferociously, but with honest reasoning, and with an overriding sense of fair play that was typical of most Americans then. Those were years when deciding between presidential candidates could be difficult—not because they were so alike, but because they were both so deserving of the office.

I wish that I could have an honest and stimulating political discussion with my old friend, Murph. Maybe, sometime... Maybe, when pigs fly.


Terry Tynan
Kenosha

terrytynan@att.net