Comparing Barack Obama to mid-20th century brutal dictators or leaders of radical political movements has upset the president’s supporters going back to the early stages of his term. And as the presidential campaign is getting into gear, making philosophical judgments about Obama is making a comeback.
But that’s not to the delight of MSNBC “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough. On the broadcast of his Friday program, Scarborough took issue with a statement that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a 2012 GOP presidential hopeful, made at the Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans on Thursday.
“This is the core of my argument with Barack Obama,” Gingrich said. “He is a natural secular European socialist. He believes in big government. He believes in centralized power. He believes he, as a politician, knows more than we do and he should help us redesign our lives by letting him and other bureaucrats live it for us. It is the opposite of freedom.”
According to Scarborough, Obama is anything but the opposite of freedom and that had him upset in the opening of his show.
“I will tell you — if you’re scoring at home, kids, Barack Obama and the sort of mushy progressive but moderate extending [of] Bush tax cuts and tripling the number of troops in Afghanistan — that is not left-wing Marxism or socialism,” Scarborough declared. “That is not the opposite of freedom. The opposite of freedom would be — oh, I don’t know — Gaddafi. That’s the opposite of freedom. Now that we have clarified that — Newt Gingrich just can’t help himself.”
To Scarborough, there are far more accurate things to call “the opposite of freedom.” (Bill Maher’s favorite GOP candidate: ‘I would vote for Ron Paul if I had to pick’)
“Calling Kathleen Sebelius ‘Stalin,’ saying Barack Obama is the opposite of freedom — you can go ahead,” Scarborough said. “Why can’t you just say, ‘I disagree with his viewpoints,’ instead of bringing up Stalin and Hitler and saying he’s the opposite of freedom? [Libyan dictator Muammar] Gaddafi is the opposite of freedom. Al-Qaeda is the opposite of freedom. Why does he keep saying stupid things like that?”
Later in the segment, Scarborough said Gingrich didn’t deserve a pass for those remarks and should be held accountable.
“No, I’m not going to give Newt slack,” Scarborough said. “He called Barack Obama the opposite of freedom. I’m going to have to call you on it because that’s just stupid.”
The “Morning Joe” host said that Gingrich should focus on issues instead of attacking the president for philosophical reasons.
“[J]ust talk,” Scarborough said. “Tell people in Bucks County, Pa., how they are going to get their jobs back. Tell people in the I-4 corridor something they don’t know. Come on, tell people how they are going to get back to work. These are cheap shots. These are cheap — it’s the political version of a pie in the face. Just stop and tell people how you are going to get them back to work. Stop with the stupid Stalin comparisons.”
Brzezinski suggested Gingrich had gotten Scarborough’s point, which led to an even more vociferous reply about Gingrich from the “Morning Joe” host.
“No, he’s been doing it for 20 years!” Scarborough yelled. “God, when is he going to stop and just tell people what they need to know about how we are going to get back — you can get people back to work without bringing up Hitler every three [seconds] — secular socialist machine that’s going to chew up Jesus and spit out the American flag. I mean, come on, dude!”