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Obama's Guns Position

This is an unfortunate statement:

"The bottom line is this. If you?ve got a rifle, you?ve got a shotgun, you?ve got a gun in your house, I?m not taking it away. Alright? So they can keep on talking about it but this is just not true. And by the way, here?s another thing you?ve got to understand. Even if I wanted to take it away, I couldn?t get it done. I don?t have the votes in Congress."

Oh boy. You can see what he's trying to do here. Argue that he doesn't want to take away your guns, but even if you don't believe him, you can still vote for him because he can't do it anyway. I can hear myself doing this in a normal conversation. I don't want to do this, but even if I did, I couldn't.

But what works in a debate round or casual conversation doesn't work as well on the stump. "Even if I wanted to, I couldn't" sounds a lot like "I would if I could."

Full post as published by Expressio Unius on September 15, 2008 (boomark / email).