All The News That's Fit To Ignore

I'm sure by now that you've all seen the video of poor Henrietta Hughes asking President Obama to help her escape her homelessness. What I find really telling is his response:

"We're gonna do everything we can to help you, but there are a lot of people like you..."

It's a brilliant, sensitive answer that says...absolutely nothing.

"We"? Did Henrietta ask someone in addition to Obama for help? Who is this "we"? Maybe he means the "we" who will have to pay the taxes for some of the programs he's supporting. And notice that he says that this mysterious "we" will do everything we can to help. Well, if "we" can't do anything, then "we" won't do anything, right? Doing nothing is perfectly consistent with his answer. It's a non-committal committal. In fact he tries to weasel his way out of doing anything with his next statement: "but there are a lot of people like you." Translation: there are a shitload of people as fucked as you are, so don't expect too much from me. Then he gives her a kiss. Boo-boo all gone.

It looks like Henrietta did get a house to live in. A Florida representative's wife agreed to let Henrietta and her adult son live in a house she owned. And this is where I get pissed off. I read maybe a dozen reports about this and not one of them pointed out the fact that it was a Republican representative's wife who helped Ms. Hughes out. Not one. In fact, I noticed over at HuffPo, some of the comments criticizing those "selfish, greedy Repubs." Apparently they didn't know the whole story either. If anyone out there has seen a version of the story in which they actually identify Nick and Chene Thompson by their political affiliations, please send me a link.

This all begs the question of whether or not the media would have been so quiet about Thompson's politics if the parties had been reversed.

Ultimately, though, I find this to be an excellent example of one of the differences I see between Democrats and Republicans. Democrats are always talking about how they're going to help you, usually by getting someone else to pay for it. The Republicans step up and do it.