See this kid? He has a batting record. It's an impressive one. Major league, by any standard.
The Republican convention was positively devoted to spreading the lie that it's zero.
Here's how the Los Angeles Times transcribed McCain's speech last night, with crowd responses included:
I will reach out my hand to anyone to help me get this country moving again. (Cheers, applause.)
My friends -- (interrupted by cheers, applause) -- I have that record and the scars to prove it. Senator Obama does not. (Cheers, applause.)
Instead of -- (chants of "Zero! Zero!")
Did you get that? Not "my record is better," but "my record exists." Followed by a chorus of "Zero! Zero!".
Palin's words on Wednesday night hit the Big Lie even harder:
"There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or even a reform, not even in the state senate." (Cheers, applause.)
While you and I were gnashing our teeth and liveblogging to our hearts' content, millions of undecided voters were "learning" this about Obama. Since none of the telepundits seem to have bothered to indict that statement in the afterblather, many of those watching processed it as fact.
This wasn't a passing rhetorical flourish. It's the linchpin of the Republican's strategy. And they'll keep using it as long as we let them get away with it.
Need more proof? Here's Rudy Guliani's speech:
But he's never -- but he's never run a city, he's never run a state, he's never run a business, he's never run a military unit, he's never had to lead people in crisis.
(Cheers, applause.)
AUDIENCE: (Chanting.) Zero! Zero! Zero!
GIULIANI: This -- this --
AUDIENCE: (Chanting.) Zero! Zero! Zero!
GIULIANI: -- he is the least experienced candidate for president of the United States in at least the last 100 years. (Cheers, applause.) Not a personal attack, a statement of fact. Barack Obama has never led anything, nothing! Nada! (Cheers, applause.) Nada! Nothing!
AUDIENCE: (Chanting.) Zero! Zero! Zero!
It's an outright lie. The biggest lie of the convention, and potentially the most damaging.
Obviously, a legislator IS a leader. Guiliani's ridiculous threshold eliminates Lincoln, Truman, Kennedy. What's really being negated here is Obama himself, as a smooth talker but a do-nothing. A zero.
When Obama stood on the steps of the Illinois State Capitol to announce his candidacy, it wasn't just because the backdrop was nicely evocative of Lincoln. It was because he'd spent seven years inside that building, working hard. That had been followed by a briefer but equally-impressive productivity record as a U.S. senator. The guy gets stuff done.
The Republican strategy is, of course, to attack the opponent's strengths, not weaknesses. It's taking shape around the Big Lie that Palin mouthed: Obama's all talk, no action.
It's up to us to call bullshit.
Here are three numbers every Obama supporter needs to know by heart:
820 and 427 and 152
- - -
820 is the number of laws Obama sponsored in the Illinois State Senate.
427 is the current count of the number of bills Obama has co-sponsored in the U.S. Senate.
And the final number, 152, is the most recent tally of the number of bills that Senator Obama has authored. You can see his current legislative record here. Three of them, including S. 3558 ("A bill to provide for enhanced food-borne illness surveillance and food safety capacity") were moved upon just last week.
Let's look at that quote from Palin again, this time with wiggle words highlighted:
"...this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or even a reform, not even in the state senate." (Cheers, applause.)
Actually, it's not hard to find bills by Obama that qualify both as major, and as reforms. As Andrew Sullivan points out:
...it seems extremely weird that she should believe that Obama's record is a total zero.
At her first press conference, why not ask her why she said that Obama has never passed a single reform, when he passed the 2007 Ethics Reform, described by many as the most sweeping package of its kind since Watergate. Of course, she doesn't know. She was given this speech. But she should be asked to respond to the question of why she said something patently untrue to the entire country.
Now, McCain's record is also easily available for perusual--but that's not the point, is it? Sullivan again:
You can see the idea here: to keep equating Palin's experience with Obama's. ...So there's your standard. It's fatuous and stupid. But if you repeat it often enough, it might just work.
Which explains the new obscenity: "ZERO! ZERO!" shouted repeatedly from the convention floor. They're hoping people will look at the Obama campaign's big "O" symbol and see a "0" instead.
As fun as it is to chew on rumors about Trig's true mother, or crack jokes about McCain and adult diapers, Obama needs us. He needs us to give a full-throated defense of the truth--not of him personally, but of the truth.
The kid has a batting record. Obama's record of turning words into action isn't zero. It's 820, and 427, and 152.
UPDATE: Thanks to Travis Liles for catching a bad link, now corrected, and to Lupeyg2 for the following link and observation:
Go to http://thomas.loc.gov/ and "Browse Bills By Sponsors" in the middle of the page - from there, you can see the bills currently in congress sponsored by each member. In this tally, could you guess who has more bills sponsored - Obama or McSame?
The count is 129 - 38. Obama wins AGAIN!
UPDATE II: Thanks to NotablyZen for providing this link to a concise and emailable infographic from the NY Times, detailing Obama's record in the Illinois legislature.
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