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"I think it’s fair to say that Daily Kos was the blog of ideas for a pretty long chunk of time there over the last 5-6 years in the sense that it was challenging conventional wisdom."
Is that a compliment? Or a criticism?
Without a clear qualifier that the GOP's ideas were bad, Sen. Obama's comment to the Reno Gazette Journal Ed Board that the Republicans were the "party of ideas" who "challenged conventional wisdom" comes across as complimentary of the GOP.
Sen. Obama has repeatedly characterized the idea of "challenging conventional wisdom" as a worthy goal:
Sen. Obama: ‘I'm not running to uphold conventional wisdom. I'm running to change the conventional wisdom.’
Sen. Obama: ‘It's time to get off of the conventional wisdom and try something new... And that's what we're going to do in the Obama administration.’
Obama campaign manager: ‘This grassroots movement for change will not be deterred by Washington conventional wisdom because in many ways it is built to challenge it.’
Sen. Obama: ‘I've been trying to challenge some conventional wisdom... And the purveyors of conventional wisdom have gotten uncomfortable.’
Sen. Obama: ‘It's time to turn the page on Washington's conventional wisdom.’
As Hillary said of Sen. Obama's comments at the debate on Monday, "it certainly came across in the way that it was presented, as though the Republicans had been standing up against the conventional wisdom with their ideas."
Considering the full context of Sen. Obama's Reno Gazette Journal Ed Board interview (relevant transcript below), it's a reasonable reading to take Sen. Obama's words as a positive portrayal of the Republicans.
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TRANSCRIPT:
OBAMA: I don’t want to present myself as some sort of singular figure. I think part of what’s different are the times. I do think, for example, that the 1980 election was different. I think Ronald Reagan changed the direction of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not, and in a way that Bill Clinton did not. He put us on a fundamentally different path because the country was ready for it. I think they felt like, you know, with all the excesses of the 60’s and the 70’s and, you know, government had grown and grown but there wasn’t much sense of accountability in terms of how it was operating. And I think people just tapped into – he tapped into what people were already feeling, which is we want clarity, we want optimism, we want a return to that sense of dynamism and you know, entrepreneurship that had been missing, alright?
I think Kennedy, 20 years earlier, moved the country in a fundamentally different direction. So I think a lot of it just has to do with the times; I think we’re in one of those times right now, where people feel like things as they are going aren’t working. That we’re bogged down in the same arguments that we’ve been having, and they’re not useful. And the Republican approach, I think, has played itself out. I mean, there’s - I think it’s fair to say that the Republicans were the party of ideas for a pretty long chunk of time there over the last 10-15 years in the sense that they were challenging conventional wisdom.
Now, you’ve heard it all before. You look at the economic policies that are being debated among the presidential candidates it’s all tax cuts. Well, you know, we’ve done that, we’ve tried it. That’s not really going to solve our energy problems for example. So some of it’s the times, and some of it I do think there’s a – there’s maybe a generational element to this partly, in the sense that I didn’t come of age in the battles of the 60’s. I’m not as invested in it. So I think I talk differently about issues and I think I talk differently about values and that’s why I think we’ve been resonating with the American people.
And by the way, when I say this sometimes it’s interpreted as I don’t think anybody who’s a baby boomer should be president. That’s not what I’m saying. But what I’m saying is, is that I think the average baby boomer has moved beyond a lot of the arguments of the 60s but our politicians haven’t. We’re still having the same arguments. You know, it’s all around culture wars, and it’s all – you know, even when you discuss war, the frame of reference is all Vietnam. Well, that’s not my frame of reference; my frame of reference is, what works? And my out - even when I first opposed the war in Iraq, my first line was, "I don’t oppose all wars". You know, it’s specifically to make clear that this is not just an anti-military, you know, 70’s love-in kind of approach. It’s rather that I thought strategically that it was a mistake to go in.
MORE:
VIDEO CLIPS (from the Reno Gazette Journal Ed Board interview):
http://www.youtube.com/...
http://www.youtube.com/...
http://www.youtube.com/...
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