Master of the False Choice

This administration may do things clumsily, but in rhetoric it is the master of the false choice.

A timely example, from today:

Obama, at Tuesday's education event, rejected criticism that he is trying to do too many things at once, citing three predecessors who managed to juggle challenges on many fronts --Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt and John Kennedy.

"President Kennedy didn't have the luxury of choosing between civil rights and sending us to the moon. And we don't have the luxury of choosing between getting our economy moving now and rebuilding it over the long term," he said.

Mr. Obama added that Roosevelt had to fight the Depression and World War II at the same time. No choice.

Not exactly true, for either president.

President Kennedy most certainly had the luxury to choose between the moon shot and civil rights, because other than a bit of rhetoric, he didn't do anything about it. (As a U.S. senator, JFK actually voted against an Eisenhower sponsored Civil Rights Act in 1957!) The Civil Rights Act of 1964 came after his assassination, with LBJ and a majority of Republican lawmakers shaming the Democrat party, which at the time was Southern dominated and not nearly so broad-minded, into going along. This is not to say that JFK was incapable of doing two things at once. He was vastly more competent than our current president and most certainly understood the necessity for across-the-board tax cuts, a strong defense, and an expanded space program that challenged the American imagination and employed a great number of private sector firms.

As for FDR, Roosevelt had the luxury of fighting the Depression for seven or eight years before the clouds of the Second World War gave him the "out" that he so badly needed on the economic front. Remember, FDR took office in 1933. World War II became a back-burner issue for FDR in 1939-40 as he pushed a reluctant Congress to help arm Great Britain. He lost the luxury of a choice on December 7, 1941, but the very act of war caused Roosevelt to declare to insiders that he was no longer Dr. New Deal but Dr. Win the War. The war finally brought the nation out of the Depression, not government manipulation.

Mr. Obama uses the rhetorician's tactic of setting up a false premise knowing that most people don't think fast enough -- or know enough about history -- to realize its absurdity.