Originally posted at centrist blog The Motley Moose
TalkingPointsMemo points out an (unsurprisingly) ridiculous claim from the April 7th "Morning Joe" show on MSNBC. President Obama, despite being a self made millionaire several times over (the sort of thing I thought Republicans admired) has, apparently, never earned a "paycheck" in his life.
SCARBOROUGH: Think about this: We have a president who has never received a paycheck. ... This guy — think about it — he’s running Detroit, he’s running Wall Street, he’s gonna run other sectors of our economy. Andrew, he’s never received a check from a profit-making business in his entire life. Not one check. ... Think about the radicalism of that!
Watch it below:
Really, Joe? How about the working at several law firm parts, the law professor part, the state legislature part, the senator part, or the president part? Maybe those last three don't count- I keep forgetting, government creating jobs is all just a liberal myth, right? Come to think of it, though, President Obama also work at Baskin-Robbins when he was in high school? And why the hell is how many paychecks someone has earned in their life a character assessment or a judge of how well they will do a job?
So, if I have it pegged correctly:
Collecting dividends from Daddy's trust fund = earning a paycheck.
Drawing a salary from serving your state/country as a Senator ≠ earning a paycheck.
Is that about right?
I mean, if you want to make a point about President Obama having a limited amount of private sector experience relative to him making important decisions about companies like GM, Chrysler, AIG, et cetera- but give me a freakin' break- make that claim.
Hell, it seems like 'ole Joe himself didn't do much except go to law school, work briefly for a law firm, and then get elected to Congress. By this logic, I could certainly make the claim he's never earned a "paycheck", either. He's certainly never had to work a nine to five, or work two jobs to put food on the table for a baby girl, or wonder how you'll make the next mortgage payment.
Say it ain’t so, Joe- there you go again. Distortions and false equivalency. Pretty much par for the course though, eh?