In Politics, Two Negatives Don't Make a Positive

Marty Kaplan
HuffPost

A riddle: What piece of political wisdom is always wrong -- but its opposite is also always wrong?

Okay, here's a hint: Willie Horton. Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. John Boehner.

The Boehner illustration was on full display last week. Ever since President Obama's first 100 days in office, when House minority leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said his bills "make me want to throw up," Boehner has been attacking the president on every front from terrorism ("no plan to keep America safe") to health care ("Hell no, you can't!"). And for nearly two years, Obama has refused to dignify Boehner's charges with a response, instead using surrogates like Joe Biden to counter-punch.

A few weeks ago, Boehner gave a speech in Ohio demanding an extension of the Bush tax cuts for millionaires, calling on Obama to fire his entire economic team (not, by the way, a terrible idea), and asking Americans to elect a Republican Congress because "it's time to put grown-ups in charge." Someone in the White House must have finally decided that if Boehner's charges went unanswered, they would stick -- just as Lee Atwater's smear of Michael Dukakis (he'll pardon black men so they can rape and kill white women) stuck, and just as the Swift Boaters' smear of John Kerry (the guy with a Purple Heart was actually a coward in Vietnam) stuck, when the objects of their slanders didn't deign to fight back.

(More here.)
You have read this article with the title In Politics, Two Negatives Don't Make a Positive. You can bookmark this page URL https://ogbcommunity.blogspot.com/2010/09/in-politics-two-negatives-don-make.html. Thanks!

No comment for "In Politics, Two Negatives Don't Make a Positive"

Post a Comment

Labels

1956 Suez War 1973 War 1st Amendment About the Blog Abraham Abu Dhabi Afghanistan agriculture Ahmadinejad Ahmed Mansour airlines Al-Jazeera Al-Qa‘ida Algeria Alzheimer’s AmeriCorps ancient history Anwar Sadat ANZACs appliance rebate April 15 AQAP Arab League Arab newspapers Arab World Arab-Americans Arab-Israeli Issues Arabic language archaeology Asads Ashraf Marwan atrazine Ausrtralia Ayman Nour back pain Bahrain bailouts bank assets to GDP bank capital bank guarantees bank nationalisation Barack Obama being a patient Berbers bethlehem bias billionaires biodiversity Biography birther blahs Blankfein blog action day blogs and blogging books BP brain cancer brain injury brainless bratwurst breast cancer breast cancer Britain Buckley v. Valeo Budget 2009 bully business Cairo camels cancer cancer bonds cancer cause cancer cure cancer detection cancer diagnosis cancer research cancer risk cancer treatment Capital Flows carbon footprint care giving Catholic Church censorship CEO pay Chamber of Commerce chemo brain chemotherapy child abuse China chlorine Christmas Citizens United Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission climate change climate science clinical trials coal coal power coffeehouse gossip college colon cancer colonialism communication Congress Constellation Brands Constitution coping Copts corporations corruption coups credibility Credit Crunch credit default swaps CSAs Cuba cure death debt debt crisis defense issues deficits democratization derivatives DFL diet diglossia Diplomacy distractions doctor appointments doctor questions doctors Don Gordon donating Double Dip Druze Dubai Earth Day earthquakes East Asia and the Middle East economics Egypt ElBaradei elbow elections emotions energy Eurozone Growth Eurozone Spreads exercises extinction fairness Fallujah fat fatigue FDR Federal Reserve film Finance First World War Fiscal Stimulus food football Fox News France fraud Friday Prayer friends funding Gallo Gamal Mubarak Garrison Keillor Gaza GCC Geopolitics George W. Bush Ghajar Global Imbalances global warming Golden Rule Goldman Sachs GOP government debt Greece Greenland Gulf oil spill Gulf states Haiti Hajj Hamas Hariri head injury healing Health health care health care reform health insurance healthcare healthcare reform healthiness healthy eating healthy living Hebron hedge funds Helen Thomas helping herbicides Herding Hizbullah holidays holy places http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.ghttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifif http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif humanity humor Husni Mubarak IDF Imazighen income tax incompetence Indian Ocean inflation information technology injections insider trading insolvency insurance intelligence Internet Iran Iraq Iraq war Ireland Islam Islamophobia Israel Israeli newspapers Israeli politics Italy Japan Jerusalem Jim Klobuchar Jordan Judaism Jundallah Koch Industries Kurdish issues Kuwait Kyrgyzstan labor lack of sleep languages learning Lebanon Leukimia levothyroxine Libya life lists Lung cancer Maghreb Maldives Manas Maronites masters of manipulation Mauritania Mecca media medical costs medical errors medical history medical information medication MEI MEI Annual Conference meltdown metastatic cancer Middle East Journal Middle Eastern Christians military affairs Minnesota Minnesota GreenCorps Minnesota taxes monetary policy Morocco mortality Mossad Motivasi Muhammad Naguib Muqtada al-Sadr music music videos Muslim Brotherhood mzerim n Napa Nasser national anthems NATO needles Netanyahu New Deal New York New Zealand news NFL nitrogen pollution no-fly zone Non Sequitur normal nostalgia Nowruz nuclear crisis nuclear weapons Obama obituaries ocean acidification oil Oman Omar Suleiman oncologist optimism organic output gap ovarian cancer overscheduled pain Pakistan Palestine Palestinian Authority palliative Pat Robertson patient rights patriotism Pawlenty Pays d'Oc pesticides pink washing Pinot Noir Plan B planning PLO politics Pope Shenouda III Portfolios Prediction Markets prescriptions press freedom price of risk procedures prostate cancer prostitution protests Public Debt Qadhafi Qatar Quantitative Easing Qur'an radioactive iodine Ras al-Khaimah Ray McGovern Reagan recalls Recession recommendations recurrence remembrance Republican Party research revolutions Richard B. Parker rock bands royalty Rush Limbaugh Saad Zaghloul Saddam Hussein safety sanity Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Satan Saudi Arabia scars Scott Walker Sectarianism settlements Shi‘ism Shin Bet shipping side effects skepticism Skin cancer sleep social justice social networking solar cells solar energy solar power soy Spare Capacity special operations sphagnum moss sports state budget stem cell Stephen Ross Wine Cellars Sterling Streisand Effect stress Stuxnet succession issues Sudan Summits Sunnis Super Bowl support Supreme Court surgery swimming pool Syria Tamazight Target Corp. Target stores tax cuts taxes teaching televangelism television Territorial disputes terrorism testing The ___ Gulf The UK think tanks thyroid cancer Tifinagh time tired Tom Emmer tourism transportation trauma travel Tulocay Winery Tunisia Turkey UAE UK fiscal policy UK Recession unions United Nations universities university US US Administration US Civil War US military US Presidential Election Utah vacation vegetables Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity Veteran's Day video volunteer volunteer work Walid Jumblatt Wall Street water wealth weather Weekend Historical Videos weight loss wellness Western Sahara Wikileaks wine Wisconsin women Woods Hole World War II Yemen YItzhak Rabin young cancer patients Zahi Hawass Zero Bound