George Washington
If ever there were a famous Virginian, it is George Washington. Born and raised in Virginia, Mount Vernon was of course his historic home. Yet somehow, a confused Tur has claimed that Washington was a "native son of New York." The unbelievable gaffe occurred today on MSNBC, as Tur handed off her MTP Daily hour to Ari Melber and his The Beat.
WASHINGTON — It has been a pretty good week for Donald Trump. The economy is growing faster than anyone on the left or in the middle or among the Never-Trumpers believed possible. Inflation is low, and employment is at a record high. Moreover, the president and the European Union reached an understanding on trade last week that signals the likely end of a trade war, at least with Europe.
Every president since George Washington has suffered from a critical press. John F. Kennedy canceled all White House subscriptions to the New York Herald Tribune because of coverage he regarded as unfavorable. President Obama, who was almost universally adored by mainstream media, sometimes complained he wasn’t getting all the credit he thought he deserved for his policies; never mind that in many cases — Obamacare is just one example — liberal media rarely criticized him when those policies faltered.
What’s more important, preserving our country’s history, or somebody’s feelings? The historic Christ Church, an Episcopalian congregation in Alexandria, Virginia, made the decision to remove plaques memorializing George Washington and Robert E. Lee from their church, even though the plaques had been there since 1870. Fueled by the politically correct trend of wiping our country’s past clean from public memory, the church told its congregation: “Today, the legacy of slavery and of the Confederacy is understood differently than it was in 1870.” The networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC, remained silent. After all, the church is giving liberal ideology exactly what it wants.
President Donald Trump suggested at his August 15 press conference that after you start taking down Robert E. Lee statues that it could lead to the same fate for George Washington or Thomas Jefferson statues because they owned slaves. The response from much of the mainstream media was quick. They utterly mocked the notion that such an outcome could take place. An example of the MSM reaction came from the Associated Press via the PBS website.
Next Tuesday, three days before the current POTUS becomes an ex-POTUS, Jonathan Chait’s Audacity: How Barack Obama Defied His Critics and Created a Legacy That Will Prevail will be published. On Tuesday, New York magazine, where Chait is the chief political pundit, ran an excerpt from the book in which he claimed, “The truth is that Obama enacted careful, deep, and mostly popular solutions to a broad array of problems to which his opponents have no workable response.”
During a live interview with NBC’s Savannah Guthrie on Sunday, President Obama told her how, at the White House, “[w]e make beer – The first president since George Washington to make some booze in the White House.”
While it may be true that beer was brewed at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the President’s statement about former President George Washington also making beer there was far from accurate. Washington did, in fact, brew his own beer, but not from the White House since he never lived there (as John Adams was the first president to occupy it in 1800).
MSNBC airs a bizarre video montage at the beginning of every episode of The Ed Show, but the program was especially outlandish on Monday and Wednesday, depicting President Obama as a series of larger-than-life figures. The liberal network first portrayed the chief executive as Superman standing on top of the White House, and later placed the Democrat's head on George Washington's body in the famed painting of the crossing of the Delaware River.
Two days later, The Ed Show lead segment repeatedly showed a graphic depicting the President as Uncle Sam, holding a pen in his boxing glove-covered hand: [video below the jump]
In the previous two columns, I highlighted the first seven of the top 10 reasons I wish George Washington were still alive:
10) Washington was a role model for many, even as a youth.
9) Washington epitomized courage.
To commemorate Presidents Day and Washington's Birthday, last week I highlighted the first four of the top 10 reasons I wish George Washington were still alive:
10) Washington was a role model for many, even as a youth.
9) Washington epitomized courage.
When President Barack Obama was re-elected, the winds waned behind many patriots' ships' sails. My wife, Gena, and I felt that sock in the gut for our country and posterity, too. But instead of cowering in defeat, I believe we need to discard conventional (unsuccessful) strategies and advance in new directions.
The future of our country is going to hinge not upon the Republican Party's reinvention (as so many think) but upon each of us patriots asking what isn't working about our approach and modifying our attacks for greater impact in the culture and political wars. You don't fight and win unconventional wars with conventional weapons; that's why we lost in November.
Last week, I summarized how President Barack Obama has not lived up to his campaign promises to lower the national deficit and debt and get our nation's fiscal house in order. So now I'm calling on him to heed the economic advice of our nation's first eight presidents.
Before I highlight some of the Founding Fathers' wisdom on federal debt and spending, let me remind readers how Crossroads GPS recently summarized Obama's relation to national debt: