If a tree falls in the forest, is it President Obama’s fault?
The answer is, yes, the far-right can find a way to trace any tragedy or negative event back to Obama.
The biggest news of the week is the successful end to the long search for three Cleveland women who were abducted between 2002 and 2003, and were held captive ever since. On Monday, one of the women managed to escape, placing a 911 call that ultimately led to freedom for all three women. Three men, all brothers, have been arrested in connection with the case.
An investigation into the abductions, and what happened in the subsequent years, is now underway.
There is of course a slew of unanswered questions about the case. Why were the women abducted? What happened while they were in that house? What obstacles do they face in the years ahead?
Then there’s conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh. As Limbaugh put it before launching into a monologue about the case, “I’ll bet many of you thought, ‘There’s nothing Rush can say about that,’” before he went on to show that he can wring an offensive (and, therefore, attention-getting) remark from any situation.
Turns out a certain episode of the CBS series Hawaii Five-O got Rush thinking about a political spin to the Cleveland kidnappings. What if the suspects carried out the kidnappings in order to qualify for welfare benefits and tax exemptions, as was the case in the television show?
“Now, I don’t know what happened in Cleveland, but I couldn’t help but make the connection,” Limbaugh explained. “Three brothers, but not related the three women, have been arrested in Cleveland,” he continued before dropping the possibility that they voted for President Obama. The city, he pointed out, voted for Obama. Limbaugh admits that he doesn’t have the facts on the case before launching into the explanation that the abductions are somehow related to welfare benefits and sarcastically suggesting that the suspects are likely Obama voters. He pointed out one of the victim’s had a baby. “Double welfare benefits if one of the women has a baby,” Limbaugh declared. Rush may not be fair or accurate, but he sure has a gift for finding something to say that’s so outrageous, we’ll have to give him the attention he’s addicted to.
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