Democrat Marion Berry, an Arkansas congressman from the party's conservative wing, has announced he's retiring. In an interview with a local paper he complains about Democrat presidents, including this one, who ask him to vote for policies that are unpopular with his voters back home. In doing so he claims that Obama has been promising to do what Bill Clinton couldn't, and leverage his personal popularity to save the day:
“They (the White House) just kept telling us how good it was going to be. The president himself, when that was brought up in one group, said, ‘Well, the big difference here and in ’94 was you’ve got me.’ We’re going to see how much difference that makes now.”
(via Ben Smith)
amazed anyone finds this interesting. distraction of the cult of personality. fiddling while rome burns.
Posted by: kjc | January 25, 2010 at 10:55 PM
Lol, and Bill Clinton would be trouble because Barack Obama has a complex? This president and his followers are so self- absorbed that one wonders how they function outside their bubble.
Posted by: alinosof | January 25, 2010 at 11:09 PM
Why is anyone taking this guy (whose name is nearly identical to DC's own political phoenix, Marion Barry -- who'da thunk there'd be two male politicians named Marion?!) at his word, and his words for a verbatim quote? He's a Dixiecrat, from the conservative wing of the party, and the dude is retiring. He's got nothing to lose. He can shoot off his mouth without minding precision. Should we be so sure that the president tried to convince Mr Berry in that exact manner? Does such a quote match other reports, recordings and broadcasts of how the president talks? I'm not so sure, and I smell a rat.
Posted by: Lyle | January 26, 2010 at 03:50 AM
You're probably right Lyle. Fun though. KJC - you might have noticed, I'm plenty interested in personalities (and fiddling come to that). There are many blogs doing serious policy analysis. I'm afraid this isn't one of them.
Posted by: Marbury | January 26, 2010 at 08:58 AM