While whining about his incessant criticism from conservatives and Tea Partiers at a fundraiser in Manhattan on Friday night, Obama played the MLK card. Indeed, he compared his suffering to Martin Luther King Jr.’s suffering. From Politcker:
Standing in Weinstein’s basement, Obama said his troubles are like the ones facing Cuomo.
“When I ran in 2008, I think that a lot of folks believed we elect Obama and suddenly we’re going to fix politics in Washington,” Obama said. “And Andrew is familiar with this, because everybody figures, well, we’re going to fix politics in Albany.”
“And then it turns out that there are a lot of bad habits that have been built up over time, and we’re also a big, diverse country and not everybody agrees with me; not everybody agrees with the folks who live in Manhattan,” he said, drawing laughter from the rich celebrities that filled the room. “West of here,” he said. “You guys may not be familiar with it.”
The comparison was something of a stretch. Obama is struggling to recharge the national economy amid an increasingly deadlocked capitol split along party lines, while Cuomo, for his part, isn’t struggling much.
He passed a budget without raising taxes or destroying social service programs, and passed a landmark bill legalizing same-sex marriage, turning the state government in Albany from “dysfunctional” to hyperactive, in under seven months. (Cuomo attended the fundraiser as an invited guest, and did not pay, according to a source.)
Before leaving, Obama likened himself to one more figure. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“I think that we forget when he was alive there was nobody who was more vilified, nobody who was more controversial, nobody who was more despairing at times,” he said.
If I’m not mistaken Mr. President, MLK was assassinated. I’m thinking your “suffering” isn’t even in the same league.
