About that Republicans-having-all-the-ideas debacle...

So Barack Obama is purporting, or rather his supporters are saying, that the Clinton campaign has lied and/or distorted his Republicans-have-had-all-the-ideas-for-the-last-10-15 years remark. They also charge that the Clinton camp has distorted his Ronald-Reagan-transformed-the-political-landscape-in-a-way-that-Bill-Clinton-did-not remark. I know I have paraphrased slightly but I promise I will post the entire quotation in its context in my next post.

These are the problems with what the Obama supporters are alleging:

1) Republicans-have-had-all-the-ideas-for-the-last-10-15 years
Obama supporters say that Clinton has "distorted" the truth because Hillary Clinton has used his remark to show his perspective on which party had all the ideas the last 10-15 years.
His supporters say he never said they were "good" ideas and even goes on to say that they were "played out" in context.
Problem: The premise of his view describes is that the democrats did not have any ideas during this period of 10-15 years. And if they did have ideas, they were not important enough for Barack Obama to remember. Of course, there are many democrats that would not concur with this assessment. So while Barack Obama is entitled to his opinion, and we can agree that he never said they were "good" ideas, his perspective is that of a disgruntled Republican at best. Also, it is a very strange thing to say in a Democratic primary.

2) Ronald-Reagan-transformed-the-political-landscape-in-a-way-that-Bill-Clinton-did-not
Again, he and his supporters claim that he was stating a harmless opinion and that he never viewed Ronald Reagan in a positive light the way Hillary Clinton is purporting.

Problem: If this truly is his opinion- that Ronald Reagan ( the progressive democrats' nightmare) was the last president to transform the political landscape in a way that Bill Clinton did not, then why mention Bill Clinton by name? If he was truly a "unifier" as opposed to the alleged divisive Hillary Clinton- then why would he want to mention an equalizing polarizing figure such as Bill Clinton? Did he want a reaction out of the Clinton camp? Was he trying to get republicans on his side? Barack Obama would have had a strong argument had he ignored the Clintons all together. Still, his supporters believe with conviction he is above the attack politics that they all engage in- yet here it is for all to see.