Barack Obama, a man of tact and diplomacy.

Johny, when your mother says you are grounded that means you can't watch TV or use the internet in your room.

So, if you say, "The sky is blue and the grass is green," I can quote you as saying, "Conservatives should be sent to labor camps," and justify it as my evaluation of your general life practices, or as something I think you will probably say in the future?

Obama didn't misquote Bush because he wasn't quoting Bush, he was characterizing Bush's comment in the face of his previous track record, one which I believe is indefensible by you or any other Republican when it comes to race and economic issues; Bush has done nothing for the poor, who have fared badly under his reign.

Cycloptichorn

This should be an interesting dance ...

Only a true illiterate cannot understand the difference between tenses. When someone says "when X says something" it can refer to an action in the past, present or future.

Quote:

Johny, when your mother says you are grounded that means you can't watch TV or use the internet in your room.

Do we know if the speaker is quoting what the mother has said or may say in the future, or just a general staement to clarify what being grounded might mean, in the past, continuing present or future?

We don't.

Again, I would not expect an illiterate to understand this.

Thsi is an irrefutable fact. Obama never said Bush "said" anything.

I got to go now and find some fenceposts to argue with. LOL

Well, Decides is a present-tense verb, but can be used to indicate actions in the future as well as those beginning in the present and continuing into the future.

Or, it can be seen as having essentially no tense: 'whenever the governor decides to call in troops, is when the troops get sent in.' A description such as this can be referring to past, present, or future events and be correct each way.

I think. lol

Cycloptichorn

I am sure everyone is amused that ssoemone who claims to be a trial lawyer doesn't understand basic English and that one can refer to one tense in one clause and another tense in the next clause.

Please keep exposing your ignorance. It is amusing.

As much fun as it is, I actually have productive things to do.

Bye

Cyclo, this is too deep for these two. Essentially it is the same as Clinton's argument of the meaning of "is." Some people still don't undersatnd what Clinton meant. They lack the grey matter.

Do you two feel that Obama was really trying to say that Bush said that only now he has awakened to the fact there is poverty in our midst?

Is it the awakened part that is offensive?

The whole thing was not a quote, Bush never said "poverty in our midst" either. If he has I can't find it.

I think cylop has it right. Obama was merely characterizing how he feels that Bush must of just now awakened to the obvious fact that there is poverty in America and that we shouldn't automatically not believe him but hold him to his words which he expressed in New Orleans so that something can be done about it. That was the gist of what he was trying to get across. He wasn't trying to mock Bush or anything.

This is a stupid argument.

Obama on Bush: `We should trust although we should verify'

By Jeff Zeleny
Tribune national correspondent
Published September 18, 2005

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Sen. Barack Obama urged fellow Democrats on Saturday not to automatically view President Bush's proposed reconstruction of the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast with a cynical eye, but said: "It is absolutely imperative that we call him on his bluff."

"In the immediate aftermath of the hurricane, I think it's important that we don't just assume that George Bush is lying when he says he's finally been awakened to the fact that there is poverty and racism in our midst," said Obama (D-Ill.). "It's tempting to do so, especially when he decides to put Karl Rove in charge of reconstruction."

Rove, the top political adviser to the president, will play a close role through his position as deputy White House chief of staff, but he has not formally been tapped to supervise the rebuilding.

In an address at Harvard Law School's "Celebration of Black Alumni," Obama said Democrats shared responsibility for failing to make a larger issue of poverty in the U.S. But he said it was the opposition party's duty to hold the White House accountable for fixing problems exposed by Hurricane Katrina.

"We should trust although we should verify," Obama said. "We should actively reach out to him and say, `Mr. President, we believe, in fact, that those differences were as disturbing to you as they were disturbing to us.'"

A majority of the hurricane victims in the squalid shelters of New Orleans were black, which touched off a debate about whether racism had a role in the sluggish rescue efforts. Obama, the only African-American in the U.S. Senate, said he does not believe the administration was racist.

Obama urged Democrats to look forward rather than criticize the government's leadership and response to Katrina.

"There is a certain danger of smugness and self-satisfaction on the part of those who didn't vote for George W. Bush. There is a certain sense of `I told you so,'" Obama said.

"I share the anger and I share the outrage," he added. "But what I also want to do is accept some responsibility. . . . We've been a little complacent."

Brandon9000 wrote:

So, if you say, "The sky is blue and the grass is green," I can quote you as saying, "Conservatives should be sent to labor camps," and justify it as my evaluation of your general life practices, or as something I think you will probably say in the future?

You're repeating yourself here, and the parallel is still ridiculous.

nimh wrote:

Brandon9000 wrote:

So, if you say, "The sky is blue and the grass is green," I can quote you as saying, "Conservatives should be sent to labor camps," and justify it as my evaluation of your general life practices, or as something I think you will probably say in the future?

You're repeating yourself here, and the parallel is still ridiculous.

Stating that it's ridiculous without giving reasons is a post with no content, and you should no that. No such pronouncement is meaningful without an argument behind it. I will assume that you cannot defend yourself since you have declined to do so.

You must be talking about your own.

Chrissee wrote:

I am sure everyone is amused that ssoemone who claims to be a trial lawyer doesn't understand basic English and that one can refer to one tense in one clause and another tense in the next clause.

Please keep exposing your ignorance. It is amusing.

As much fun as it is, I actually have productive things to do.

Bye

What's even more amusing, Chrissee, is to see you constantly claiming to be more intelligent that those of us who find your posts laughable.

There are probably only two people in the known universe who think Obama misquoted Bush and they are both here. Ain't dat sumpin ?

Sen. Barack Obama

Quote:

"...I think it's important that we don't just assume that George Bush is lying when he says he's finally been awakened to the fact that there is poverty and racism in our midst."

Quote:

You must be talking about your own.