RutherfordGate: Historian Responds to President Obama’s Hayes Slur

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RutherfordGate: Historian Responds to President Obama’s Hayes Slur · 8

cliffelam · 4959 days ago

Derp. Seriously, I know Obama doesn't write what appears on his teleprompter, but don't you think the guys who do could do a better job than browsing some internet site? I don't know anything about Hayes, but I think before i attributed much to him I'd read some real historical articles.

'Speaking about the need to develop new sources of American energy in Largo, Md., Obama used our 19th president as a failure of forward-thinking leadership. "One of my predecessors, President Rutherford B. Hayes, reportedly said about the telephone: 'It’s a great invention but who would ever want to use one?'" Obama said. "That's why he's not on Mt. Rushmore."'

'In fact, Card [historian] noted, Hayes was not only the first president to have a telephone in the White House, but he was also the first to use the typewriter, and he had Thomas Edison come to the White House to demonstrate the phonograph. "So I think he was pretty much cutting edge," Card insisted, "maybe just the opposite of what President Obama had to say there.'

-XC

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b_b · 4959 days ago · link ·

People flagrantly and mindlessly follow misquotes and misattributions all the time. Its terribly annoying especially when the truth isn't typically all that hidden. My colleague has a poster outside her office that says "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants" --Isaac Newton. I want to tear it off the wall every time I see it, because Newton was quoting others, who had used that phrase for (literally) centuries. But its become the conventional wisdom, as with the Hayes quote, and once enshrined, the truth doesn't so much matter anymore.

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cliffelam · 4959 days ago · link ·

I am with you on that. ESPECIALLY NOW WITH SMART PHONES. It took me about 10 seconds to hear that quote, call mental BS, and look up that article.

I was reading "Debt" last night and found four major factual errors in the first 17 pages - and this isn't even in an area where I know anything. Just general historical stuff. So I had to, reluctantly, put the book down. How can you trust the author?

-XC

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b_b · 4959 days ago · link ·

That's why Galbraith coined the term "conventional wisdom". It was meant to be a pejorative for things people believe without testing or thinking about or researching. He was talking specifically about economics, but of course it applies to all aspects of knowledge.

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cliffelam · 4959 days ago · link ·

My degree is, actually, in the dismal science. I like how you can wish away the world with "ceteris paribus" - good to see that the nobel prize committee, when they aren't slapping America with the Peace medal, is going after economists who model the real world.

Agree with you 100% on JKG.

--XC

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b_b · 4959 days ago · link ·

The peace prize should be done away with. Look at the list of winners. There are a lot of great and worthy people, and then there are Arafat and Kissinger; it lacks credibility.

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cliffelam · 4959 days ago · link ·

Well, Kissinger did yeoman work with Tho in Paris. It may have helped that Nixon was Linebackering the NV and their Easter Offensive pooped out. :-)

A widely misunderstood conflict. My kids "history" book is shamefully inaccurate.

_XC

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vinyl · 4959 days ago · link ·

Found this amusing, under the photo of Hayes it reads, "Rutherford B. Hayes: Very much pro-phone".

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cliffelam · 4959 days ago · link ·

That was excellent too.

I just listened to the speech and the whole thing is amusing. I was especially tickled about a pro-technology speech from a guy who was complaining that ATM's and mall kiosks were putting people out of work.

Go Schumpter.

-XC