It really is hysterical listening to liberal Hollywoodans talk about politics.
Take for example actor/director Rob Reiner - made famous by his role as Meathead in the legendary sitcom All in the Family - claiming on HBO's Real Time Friday ("Overtime" web segment) that Barack Obama politically "is right around where Reagan was" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
BILL MAHER, HOST: I’m just saying the Democrats have moved to the middle.
CONGRESSWOMAN DEBBIE WASSERMAN-SCHULTZ (D-FLORIDA): We have.
MAHER: Unfortunately, the other people have moved way over there. So now the middle isn’t the middle anymore.
ROB REINER: Obama right now, where Obama is is right around where Reagan was, right around where Nixon was. There, he’s no more left than those, those, those Republicans.
MAHER: Hardly a socialist. He’s barely, barely a liberal.
REINER: No, as Bob Dole said, he could not get…
MAHER: Right.
REINER: …anywhere in this Republican Party. And so Obama’s right around where Bob Dole is. They’re very similar, you know? There’s not much of a difference there.
MAHER: Whenever they say, “Oh, he’s the most radical president ever,”
REINER: No, no, no, no.
MAHER: …right, because they’re such experts on history. What they mean is, “He’s black.” That’s what’s the most radical thing about him.
The ignorance on display was amazing.
Ronald Reagan was a fiscal and social conservative forced to work with a liberal Congress. Obama is a fiscal and social liberal initially working with a Democrat-controlled Congress and now a Democrat Senate and a Republican House.
Likening Obama to Reagan is akin to equating scotch and vodka.
Now it's certainly true that the Republican Party as a result of the Tea Party has moved to the right. However, this movement started in 1994 when the GOP took over Congress.
As for Maher's claim that the Democrats have moved to the center, this is belied by their leader in the House being Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and in the Senate Harry Reid (D.Nev.).
The reality is the Democrats made a concerted move to the left in 2002 away from the centrism of Bill Clinton when they decided to name Pelosi as their leader in the House instead of the more moderate Harold Ford Jr. (D-Tenn.) who has since left Congress.
Frankly, I don't think he'd be welcomed back by the Democrats for he's now far to the right of most of them; one could make the case that Bill Clinton himself couldn't be a member of Congress as a Democrat today.
Just ask former Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) who before his recent retirement became an independent because of how far to the left his party had moved.
Not surprisingly, Maher and Reiner don't factor in such inconvenient historical truths when they offer fallacious political opinions.
How could they? They'd be invalidating their own points.
Please also see "Rob Reiner aka Meathead: Hillary Would Be ‘Most Qualified Person Ever to Run for President.’"
