When is a Car Not a Car? When It's A Bus, On Fox and Friends
Reported by Alex - October 27, 2010 -
This morning on Fox and Friends, Brian Kilmeade was in such a tizzy over President Obama's recent metaphorical jab at Republicans that I thought I would have to wipe his spittle off the inside of my screen. Above a banner reading “Political Segregation?” Kilmeade huffed that the President has taken “a sharp turn from his campaign rhetoric, when he preached bipartisanship – remember?” Kilmeade, who stumbled over his words in righteous indignation, was joined by Fox News “analyst” Peter Johnson Jr., who twisted the car metaphor Obama has been using for months into a “a peculiar and strange and haunting and really backward reference …to being in the back of the bus.” He went on to claim that Obama had said (to Republicans), “You can’t have the keys, but we’ll let you sit in the back of the bus.” The President, of course, said no such thing. To borrow from Shakespeare: Johnson and Kilmeade need more brains and less earwax. With video.
Here is an excerpt from the oh-so-offensive, segregationist speech President Obama made on October 22nd:
Imagine that the economy is a car, and the Republicans drove this car into a ditch. And it was a really deep ditch. And somehow they were able to walk away from the accident, from the scene of the crime, but they left the car down in the ditch…Car. The analogy is with a car. The President said car eight times in total (in full quote) before he ever said “back seat”. And they turned this car into a bus!? How stupid are these people?Finally we get this car up on level ground. Finally we get it out of the ditch. Now, the car is banged up. It’s banged up, and it’s got a bunch of dents. It’s got to go to the body shop. It needs a tune-up. But it’s pointed in the right direction. The engine is still turning.
And suddenly, as we’re about to get in the car, we feel this tap on our shoulder, and we look back, and who is it? It’s the Republicans. And they say, “Excuse me, we’d like the keys back.” And we got to tell them, “I’m sorry, you can’t have the keys back. You don’t know how to drive.” You don’t know how to drive. If you want, you can ride with us, but you’ve got to ride in the backseat. We’re putting middle-class families in the front seat where they belong.
You ever notice when you want to go forward in your car, what do you do? You put it in “D.” If you want to go backwards, you put it in “R.”
Unfortunately, they’re not stupid, they’re conniving. As I’ve said before about Fox and Friends, this is a show that’s on early in the morning - probably in the background - as people get ready for work, feed the kids, make lunches, and so on. Most people probably half-watch and half-listen. The show’s output is designed to reach the emotions while bypassing rational analysis. So you have the chyron reading “Political Segregation?”, Kilmeade looking upset, and Johnson looking indignant and claiming that Obama said Republicans should be in the “back of the bus” while sharing a split screen with photos of Rosa Parks. And throwing in “Latino Vote and the Enemies: Pres suggests amnesty law critics are enemies” for good measure in case anyone missed the message that BLACK AND BROWN PEOPLE ARE OUT TO GET WHITE PEOPLE JUST LIKE YOU!
Johnson, wearing his concerned face and sounding like toddler trying to make up a lie, came up with the phrase of the day: “The American bus – the American car - is a bus and a car…” Yes, Peter, dear, of course it is...and a plane and a train and a big, big TRUCK, too! Beep beep beep! Woooowoooo! All aboooooooard for wingnut land, where words mean exactly what you want them to mean, no more and no less!
Honestly, if I don’t laugh, I’ll cry.
In case you were wondering who Peter Johnson is, here are a few of his greatest hits:
“Any American can assert a right. Great Americans give up their rights, to help those they share nothing else with but a love of this country.” Johnson on Muslims.
Fox News' Peter Johnson Jr. likens Obama to slavery supporters
“Is that what this plan is about? To save money by killing old people?” Johnson on healthcare bill
More on Johnson here
