President Obama compared to Hitler explicitly. AP Photo Jae C. Wong
On today's episode of Meet the Press Dick Armey of Freedom Works was pressed on whether it is appropriate for protesters to compare President Obama to Hitler. Before finally conceding that it was in fact wrong Dick Armey first attempted to use the "they started it" defense by claiming MoveOn.org compared President Bush to Hitler. MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, sitting next to Armey, quickly rejected Armey's claim. So who is lying?
Here is a link to the alleged, and I stress alleged, video put out by MoveOn.org comparing President Bush to Hitler. The video does compare Bush to Hitler but there is still a major problem with Armey's argument. The problem is the video was never actually released or sponsored as a television ad by MoveOn.org. Instead, the video was submitted to MoveOn.org as part of a contest it held for anyone to submit an ad to run against Bush in the 2004 election. The Hitler ad did not win and was not disseminated by MoveOn.org. Nor did MoveOn.org even release any statements approving of the ad or advocated the ad's method of attack. This directly contradicts Armey's statement that MoveOn.org "ran ads" comparing Bush to Hitler. Not only did MoveOn.org not run any ad they certainly did not run multiple ads.
Now some might say MoveOn.org should have condemned the ad posted to its site. I would agree with this point but still argue that MoveOn.org's actions are less reprehensible than those of Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck who have personally used the Nazi attack against President Obama. Dick Armey's "they did it first" response attempts to excuse the inexcusable use of the Nazi attack by either side in today's political debate. By misleading conservatives into thinking MoveOn.org used the exact same attack Armey gives media figures like Limbaugh and Beck an excuse to continue these extreme Hitler-Obama comparisons.
Comments
Who even cares. Obama's going to drop public option anyway. No single payer and no public option = no reform.
Wes Boyd, President of MoveOn Voter Fund, explains (2004):
“The ad in question has not been linked on any of our web pages since December, and even then only appeared to a small group of MoveOn members who were rating ads in the MoveOn Voter Fund ad contest.
When the Bush campaign mounted its spot on June 25th, comparing John Kerry to Hitler using images from this ad, we restored the old contest ad from backup tapes to our web server for review in response to queries from journalists. This file was apparently dredged up by Drudge, but never appeared on a MoveOn web page viewed by the public. The file itself is now deleted from our web server.
From what I understand the video was removed from the vetting process an hour after it was originally posted.
The left-leaning Internet group MoveOn.org sponsored a contest, ''Bush in 30 Seconds,'' inviting people to submit television advertisements about Mr. Bush, with the best to be determined by a vote of visitors to the site.
But two of more than 1,500 submissions have outraged Republicans and leading Jewish groups for comparing Mr. Bush, in profile and policy, to Hitler.
Wes Boyd, a MoveOn.org founder, fired back, saying Republicans were ''deliberately and maliciously'' misleading the public by asserting that MoveOn.org had sponsored the advertisements. ''None of these was our ad,'' Mr. Boyd said in a statement. ''Nor did their appearance constitute endorsement or sponsorship by MoveOn.org Voter Fund.''
The picture of Obama as Hitler you have for this story is from a DEMOCRAT! His group of DEMOCRATS were passing out their litter at many town halls. His name is Lyndon LaRouche. He runs for President as a DEMOCRAT!.
Just to keep the TRUTH from getting lost!
It was Pelosi who said the people going to the Town Hall meetings were wearing swastikas. Why is this always ignored?
Keep arguing about you said what first. It will keep you busy while they take away all our freedoms.
You say this ad has nothing to do with Moveon, etc, yet at the end of the ad, it says "Sponsored by Moveon.org". HILARIOUS!
Happy Indep: Actually the man is identified as Cameron Peterson. I do not know if Cameron is a Democrat or not.
Kevin: The "MoveOn.org" was put on there by the creator of the video not MoveOn. If I buy a copy of Mein Kampf and put "sponsored by the Republican party" on it does that mean it was actually sponsored by the Republican party?
The author is misrepresenting Dick Armey's position. At no time did Dick Army attempt "to excuse the inexcusable use of the Nazi attack by either side." He repeatedly condemned comparing Obama to Hitler. What Armey did suggest was that, the Moveon.org's ad and Nancy Pelosi's 2006 comments praising leftist demonstrators disrupting government hearings, were examples of liberal hypocrisy.
Armey picked a bad example to illustrate a point which was nonetheless true. Obama's deputy press secretary said that protesters were "dressing up as Hitler". If this were true, it would be on the front page of the NY Times and on every liberal blog. Yes, the Democrats did start it and as "Happy Indep" pointed out, LaRouche is a Democrat. In fact he is so liberal that he doesn't get along with his fellow Democrats. He just can't criticize them from the left without going hyperbolic.
For the record, I think that all of the comparisons to Hitler and the shouting at the town halls is wrong, but the protesters do have a point. The government is trying to push this through without proper deliberation and against the prevailing wind of public sentiment. We have every right to be angry but we should make our point in a cogent and dignified manner.
Viva la Constitution!
Ryan,
Moveon.org denounced the ad five years ago.
From a Fox News post dated January 06, 2004:
MoveOn.org released a statement on Monday, saying neither that ad nor another one portraying Hitler and Bush was their ad, "nor did their appearance constitute endorsement or sponsorship by MoveOn.org Voter Fund. They will not appear on TV. We do not support the sentiment expressed in the two Hitler submissions."
MoveOn.org noted that those ads were voted down by the group's members and the public, who submitted nearly 3 million critiques while choosing the 15 finalist entries.
"We agree that the two ads in question were in poor taste and deeply regret that they slipped through our screening process," the statement said. "In the future, if we publish or broadcast raw material, we will create a more effective filtering system."
Without the slightest comprehension of how free speech works nowadays, the paltry pundits of Pox Noise etc attempt to tie blog commentary with the host site. "The was on Gawker!" screeches any one of the blithering bunch. They allow the insipid lies of a Palin or a Coultergeist and yet are so shocked when an inappropriate comment is suggested by one of the millions of citizens of this here reputed republic.
Dick Armey is lying and he knows it: MoveOn never sponsored this ad--and the tagline on the ad was made by the contestant. If I make an ad featuring Obama as Hitler and put "sponsored by the Republican Party" at the end, does that mean that the GOP sponsored it? NO. Get real. The GOP ARE playing games with our lives though. They take political cheap shots and we the public lose if the Public Option is not passed.
and Ryan, MoveOn denounced the ad MULTIPLE times. They pulled the ad off of the contest web site, which was bushin30seconds.org, NOT MoveON.org
And they put out multiple statement denouncing the ad. You should update your article.
Bush's great-grandfather Samuel Bush worked with JD Rockefeller Sr to raise funds to promote German eugenics racial purity -- something Rockefeller did while Adolph Hitler was 6 years-old in 1st grade. Samuel's son Prescott Bush became Hitler's financer Fritz Thyssen's banker for USA-NYC transactions involving moving gold bullion as early as 1926. Prescott Bush was director? of nazi companies right up until 1942, eight months after Pearl Harbor, sold Thyssen's coal to Auschwitz to burn jews. Classified for 50 years after the war, the Alien Custodian's papers show that 23 more nazi businesses were confiscated under Trading with the Enemy Act from the manager Prescott Bush than three publicly disclosed in 1942, for a total of 26 nazi businesses managed by Bush's Grandfather and great-grandfather Herbert Walker (who put the W in GHWB & Dubya's names.)
So President Obama's grandfather's was fighting Nazis,
while former President Bush's grandfather was doing business
with Hitler.
We didn't see any Nazi or Hitler comparisons at the townhalls
until after Limbaugh compared President Obama to Hitler.
The ADL was right to denounce Limbaugh. The rest of us should do the same.
Thank you Ryan for giving a significantly better researched and more balanced article than your fellow NY examiner writer, Dan Spencer.
This story is bull snot. I saw the ad myself on TV and on the Internet it was disturbing. Rachel is lying and she knows it. Moveon cleary sponsored the ad and they were behind it. It was on TV and the Internet. Maybe they stopped it at some point but it should have never ran.
I tried to post a link to the ad they wouldn't let me
just google it
This was one of several. It wasnt just one ad, this is one of the ones that wasnt disturbing as some of the others they ran. It says right on the ad. SPONSORED BY MOVEON.ORG RACHEL YOUR A LIAR!!!
That video is heavily edited. Gone is the part where Hitler is standing in fron t of 12 foot high swastika flags. Dur Fuhrer magically transforms into Bush in the middle of his rant. Something to hide 5 years later???
For crying out loud, I could make an ad saying we should put to death all non-white people and put at the end "SPONSORED BY THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION". It doesn't mean that group sponsored it. This ad was never aired on TV and was only released on the internet by someone who wanted Moveon.org to use it. They refused to have anything to do with it. Dick Armey probably knows this but he's counting on the ignorance of people to believe anything they see. Good on Rachel Maddow for pointing out the truth
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