Classical Values :: Obamadee and Hillarydum agreed to have a battle...

Obamadee and Hillarydum agreed to have a battle...

Anyone who enjoyed the Tweedledee and Tweedledum story as a child will enjoy David Kopel's piece in today's Wall Street Journal comparing Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama's positions on gun control. Instead of Tweedledum and Tweedledee, Kopel invokes an even sillier (and more surreal) spectacle -- Pat Robertson and James Dobson courting the gay marriage vote!

Imagine an election race of Pat Robertson versus James Dobson, each of them appearing at organic grocery stores and Starbucks throughout Massachusetts, with each candidate insisting that he alone deserves the vote of gay-marriage advocates. An equally silly spectacle is taking place these days in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Indiana, West Virginia and Kentucky, as Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama compete for the pro-gun vote.

A silly but completely apt comparison. It is just as difficult to see which of the two is "better" on the right to keep and bear arms as it would be to determine whether Dobson or Robertson is "better" on gay marriage.

Kopel demonstrates -- in damningly meticulous detail -- that both candidates have awful records, and he concludes that "Civil libertarians who support Mr. Obama or Mrs. Clinton because of their purported fealty to the Second Amendment may be bitterly disappointed."

Well, if you're a Second Amendment supporter and you're not feeling bitter, just wait until one of them is in the White House.

It just so happens that I watched the debate last night and wrote this piece for Pajamas Media. On the gun issue, the only "debate" seemed to involve which candidate could demonstrate a superior talent for obfuscation and for the abilty to display willful ignorance:

....both candidates lost. They seemed to be engaged in some sort of perverse contest to see who was better at obfuscating the documented anti-gun records of each, as well as competing to demonstrate a near-total ignorance about the Heller case. Obama said, "I confess I obviously haven't listened to the briefs and looked at all the evidence," while Hillary said, "I don't know the facts." Riiiight. (While they're probably both lying, if they are telling the truth, neither one belongs in a legislature, much in the White House!)

Reading Kopel's piece this morning makes me realize how difficult it must have been for them to be facing their left-wing, anti-gun constituents, and all the while they've been trying to con regular voters into believing that they're really not after their guns (when of course they are). No wonder they feigned ignorance and didn't dare disagree with each other. Imagine Pat Robertson and James Dobson having to appear before their constituents after having courted the gay marriage vote, and with everyone watching. It was an exercise in political surrealism worthy of Lewis Carroll.

Anyone who thinks there's more than a smidgen of a difference between them (or entertains delusional thoughts that either supports the Second Amendment) should go read Kopel's piece.

And be sure to laugh while you can.