RNC Attacks Bo the Obama Dog? Time to Take a Page from FDR
By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
The RNC has gone to the dogs. Or rather gone after the dog. In a new Web video released today satirizing the well-known Visa card commercials, the RNC tasks President Obama with using $2,000 in taxpayer funds to purchase his "new best friend": Bo the dog.
(Seriously? $2,000? Apparently so. That's nuts.)
Anyway, given his well-known affinity for Franklin D. Roosevelt, this seems like a logical opportunity for the president to take a page from FDR's playbook.
Recall that in 1944, Republicans accused Roosevelt of having sent a destroyer to pick up his dog Fala after he had been left behind on a trip to the Aleutian Islands. (For the record: The dog wasn't left and the destroyer wasn't turned around.)
As William Safire notes in his invaluable Political Dictionary, "More factual policy charges were being made but FDR seized on this one to ridicule and cast doubt on all the others."
Kicking off his campaign in a speech before the Teamsters on September 23 (you read that right—he started his campaign in late September), FDR memorably said:
These Republican leaders have not been content with attacks on me, or my wife, or on my sons. No, not content with that, they now include my little dog, Fala. Well, of course, I don't resent attacks, and my family doesn't resent attacks, but Fala does resent them. You know, Fala is Scotch, and being a Scottie, as soon as he learned that the Republican fiction writers in Congress and out had concocted a story that I had left him behind on the Aleutian Islands and had sent a destroyer back to find him ... his Scotch soul was furious. He has not been the same dog since. I am accustomed to hearing malicious falsehoods about myself ... But I think I have a right to resent, to object to libelous statements about my dog.
Let's see if BHO follows FDR in defending his d-o-g.
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Tags: Republicans | Barack Obama | Franklin Delano Roosevelt | pets | RNC
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Reader Comments
$2,000.00 pooch
Dear Big O; I am a recently unemployed nurse of over 35 years. I now find my body too tired to keep up with the rigorous tasks of a nursing career. I would like to change careers.
Something of a milder nature may be within my reach. Since you find it a reasonable thing to do, spending taxpayer money on a dog, maybe you would like to provide money for a business opportunity, such as, providing the equipment I would need, to start an in home Call Center. The cost of equipment is nearly what you paid for your pooch. As the recipient of said funds, I can reassure you, in no time, I will be able to put the money right back into our country's economy. Yours, most appreciative, Lillian Williams/DisappointedDemocrat - Philadelphia, Pa.
Bo
Thanks what PWD cost. Actually I'm surprised any breeder in their right mind would sell him a PWD. BHO did promise to get a shelter or rescue dog.......
How to miss a point
Did you watch the whole video? The dog was a stepping stone up to mega billions and you guys are just mad the RNC made a valid point about spending.
Sure, I know most republicans are furious about the spending there own party did when in control and I also remember FDR's train slipping down throught the small train tracks into Tranquility, NJ so FDR could sneak in a visit with his lady friend at an estate there. That train rode pase Grampa's Church and it was a affront to the culture but Republicans said nothing about it. The guy had a problem with walking and we felt sorry for him.
You and I should be working together to stop the porkbarrel and other wastful projects of both sides of the aisle. We need to support some standards in ehtics and objectives so these characters work for us, not the big money lobbyists.
I am commenting so so we know we are all in need of help and this will continue until we the people get mad enough to do something about it.
Lots of Democrats and Republicans and moderates and conservatives and liberals and libertarians and independants will gather on July 15th at the next tea party to express our concern. Join us. They are listening.
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