OK, I know you’ve all seen this video, Obama Bombshell Redistribution of Wealth Audio Uncovered:

 

 

Obama’s response? All he meant was that redistribution would have to be undertaken legislatively rather than in the courts. That’s supposed to make me feel better?

The thing is, I think that is exactly what his response was, but that he (more specifically, his spokesman) tried to hide it. Like HotAir, I’ll reproduce the response in its entirety (as quoted by Jake Tapper at ABC) to avoid accusations of cherry-picking (emphasis mine):

“In this interview back in 2001, Obama was talking about the civil rights movement — and the kind of work that has to be done on the ground to make sure that everyone can live out the promise of equality,” Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton said. “Make no mistake, this has nothing to do with Obama’s economic plan or his plan to give the middle class a tax cut. It’s just another distraction from an increasingly desperate McCain campaign.”

Burton continued: “In the interview, Obama went into extensive detail to explain why the courts should not get into that business of ‘redistributing’ wealth. Obama’s point — and what he called a tragedy — was that legal victories in the civil rights led too many people to rely on the courts to change society for the better. That view is shared by conservative judges and legal scholars across the country.

“As Obama has said before and written about, he believes that change comes from the bottom up — not from the corridors of Washington,” Burton said. “He worked in struggling communities to improve the economic situation of people on the South Side of Chicago, who lost their jobs when the steel plants closed. And he’s worked as a legislator to provide tax relief and health care to middle-class families. And so, Obama’s point was simply that if we want to improve economic conditions for people in this country, we should do so by bringing people together at the community level and getting everyone involved in our democratic process.“

See that appeal to a conservative view of the role of the courts? Nice feint. In the radio interview, Obama wasn’t congratulating the court for recognizing its limits, he was lamenting that those limits existed. Did Obama himself technically recognize those limits? Yes. But he wished they did not exist.

The line that this has “nothing to do with his economic plan” is utter crap. It states his economic goals, and at the end of the statement Obama’s spokes-hole says that effecting change “from the ground up” means “getting everyone involved in our democratic process” Get them involved to do what, exactly?

In short, anyone who believes Obama is actually backing away from a redistribution mindset here is fooling himself. Obama did nothing of the sort, either inthe radio interview or in today’s statement. All he said — all he said— was that redistribution would have to be accomplished through legislation rather than through the courts.