Here’s the Obama nut graf of Browne’s focus:
Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted, for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame.
What’s wrong with wanting some leisure, Browne asks in response?
But, Browne notes Obama gets worse with this:
For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West, endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.
Browne points to the penultimate clause, and wonders, did Obama really mean that slaves CHOSE the lash instead of leisure?
Look at Obama’s whole context, as quoted by Browne:
In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted, for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame.
Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things -- some celebrated, but more often men and women obscure in their labor -- who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.
For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life. For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West, endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.
Obama certainly comes off as sounding like John Calvin meeting Simon Legree.
And, by the early time at which he wrapped up going to inaugural balls, Obama apparently doesn’t believe in leisure.
Great. A George W. Bush-type moralist who actually means it.