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Obama says Ayn Rand is for ‘misunderstood’ teenagers

Oct. 25, 2012 4:50pm Meredith Jessup

In a new interview with journalistic standard-bearer Rolling Stone, President Barack Obama gives a back-handed smack to vice presidential hopeful Paul Ryan and famed author Ayn Rand.

Obama says Ayn Rand is for misunderstood teenagers

(Image: AP)

It’s no secret that Paul (and countless others) are fans of Rand’s work. “I grew up reading Ayn Rand, and it taught me quite a bit about who I am and what my value systems are and what my beliefs are. It’s inspired me so much that it’s required reading in my office for all my interns and my staff,” Ryan has said previously. But liberals have slandered Ryan, portraying him as more of a fanatic than a fan. Rob Zerban, the Wisconsin Democrat trying to unseat Ryan in the House of Representatives, claims that the Republican congressman has a “disturbing” obsession.

President Obama is seizing on this running meme and continuing his efforts to paint his Republican challengers as scary right-wing extremists. When Rolling Stone lobbed him a softball about Ryan’s admiration for Rand’s work, Obama responded:

“Ayn Rand is one of those things that a lot of us, when we were 17 or 18 and feeling misunderstood, we’d pick up. Then, as we get older, we realize that a world in which we’re only thinking about ourselves and not thinking about anybody else, in which we’re considering the entire project of developing ourselves as more important than our relationships to other people and making sure that everybody else has opportunity – that that’s a pretty narrow vision. It’s not one that, I think, describes what’s best in America. Unfortunately, it does seem as if sometimes that vision of a ‘you’re on your own’ society has consumed a big chunk of the Republican Party.”

When asked if he himself had ever read Rand, Obama replied, “Sure.”

Ha: I’d love to know which one of his “Marxist professors” had Ayn Rand on their required reading list.

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Comments (18)

Ghandi was a Republican
Posted on October 28, 2012 at 8:00pm
Gee– I wonder where the biggest abuse of power and self-interest come from? Could it be Central planners who make themselves King as part of their plan? And make their underlings sub-kings on the hush hush to keep it that way? Everyone looks the other way out of self-interest. THAT is why the founders wrote the U.S. Constitution the way they did, to put a stop to it and secure the Individuals right to self-determination.

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Ghandi was a Republican
Posted on October 28, 2012 at 7:40pm
I wonder if teenagers are going to figure out that obama just called them morons? In one blanket statement!

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Mapache
Posted on October 26, 2012 at 10:12am
I do not believe Obama read the book. I would like to have seen a followup question that would have exposed Obama.

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Solexander
Posted on October 26, 2012 at 4:20am
And Marx is for misunderstanding adults, right?

As for “only thinking of [oneself],” that’s almost funny coming from an apparent narcissist.

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rude187
Posted on October 25, 2012 at 11:22pm
Mmcdole, Ayn Rand and Christianity are not compatible. You guys are probably confusing selfishness with self-interest. Those are two different things.

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- IAMINFIDEL
  Posted on October 26, 2012 at 8:35am
  Actually, there is rational self-interest and irrational self-interest. The common understanding of selfishness tends to equate with the latter.
  
  Report this comment
Cosmos102
Posted on October 25, 2012 at 10:49pm
Clearly Obama is the product of a radical left wing mother who had Communist grandparents. Oblammer grew up suckling on the tit of propaganda and anti Americanism. Don’t expect anything else to come out of his mouth. The brainwashing is complete, and as a result, Obama has developed an ever more serious personality disorder starting with Narcissism. Narcissists need attention but they despise people, look down on us all, and feel no human emotions except 2, anger and fear. Michelle is most likely also suffering from a personality disorder and the 2 of them work together because each of their needs are different. If they were alike, they would kill eachother. But they are both parasites. Make no mistake.

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- FloraBelleza
  Posted on October 26, 2012 at 2:55am
  I agreed with you 100%, they never intend to worked hard, they think is easy to print money or to take from those who do sacrifice everything for a better future of the family’s.
  
  Report this comment
Oneirishman
Posted on October 25, 2012 at 10:21pm
No, Choom is for misunderstood teenagers.

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mmcdole
Posted on October 25, 2012 at 8:02pm
Additionally, I find it hysterically funny that some tool like Zerban would make remarks about Ryan making Ayn Rand required reading for people working for and representing him while garbage like “A Tree Grows In Brooklyn” is required reading for high school students.

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mmcdole
Posted on October 25, 2012 at 7:56pm
It never ceases to amaze me the reaction the mere mention of Ayn Rand elicits from some folks. For good reason though, who better to sound the bell warning us of the cancer that is the progressive left than someone whose family not only fled to America to escape communism, but sings praises of things like self-reliance and individual freedom.

For the record; the “selfishness and Christianity are at odds argument” is thin and very tired. I am not a Christian but reasonable people recognize that Judeo-Christian morals are good rules to live by, regardless of your subscription to the faith.

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- rude187
  Posted on October 25, 2012 at 11:15pm
  Mmcdole, the arguement that Ayn Rand and Christianity are incompatible is not at all tired. The thing is that those that espouse the virtues of selfishness are probably confusing it with self-interest. Self-iterest and selfishness are two different things.
  
  Report this comment
Ducky657
Posted on October 25, 2012 at 7:03pm
Yeah we get it–we are all a bunch of babies and you guys are the mature ones! So we did not read the daily Pravda like you we do not send love notes to Vladimir like you but we actually have a function in life besides ruining America’s economy and destroying the very fiber which holds our country tenuously together. Anyone who has a brain realizes there is a serious problem in this country and you are the cause predicted in Ayn Rand’s ‘Atlas Shrugged’. On December 7, 2011 President Obama said Free Market Capitalism does not work but if you listened to him during the debates you would have thought he subscribed to the Adam Smith style of Capitalism instead of the Keynesian style he has shoved down our throats over the last four years!

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patricking49
Posted on October 25, 2012 at 6:59pm
As an answer to your question, I would say that everyone who’s taken the time to read Marx, Engle Lenin and Mao has certainly read Ayn Rand. At the very least the Virtue of Selfishness and the Romantic Manifesto are required reading. Conversely, I meet people every day who bandy the words capitalism and communism around and have not read one word of Marx’ manifesto, hence have no idea what they’re talking about. What I find hilarious are lame brains like Paul Ryan who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ but cheer Rand’s Virtue of Selfishness. The tenets of Christ and the tenets of Ayn Rand are mutually exclusive. Rand, of course, knew this. Neither Paul Ryan nor Ron Paul today, would be welcome in her “Collective.” Rand Paul must have her spinning in her grave. He is the antithesis of Ayn Rand.

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- inblack
  Posted on October 26, 2012 at 12:52am
  @PATRICKING49
  
  You’re wrong – they are not mutually exclusive.
  
  If God reveals himself to you and you love God, then you love your neighbor for Him.
  This is a selfish act motivated by love.
  
  I do not believe in altruism. I do not give to people that are not in need. I love myself. I give of my own free will, out of love for God, not out of fear of damnation. I am not a sacrificial animal, I am a free individual.
  
  Christianity and God have been used by kings, dictators and religious to enslave men. That is the flaw of western society and was thrown off in the American revolution. All men are created equal, all men have the right to life liberty and to pursue happiness.
  
  Communism has replaced the most evil part of religion with a religion of men – humanism for one, where again men are asked to sacrifice for others and not be selfish. Not out of love, but out of subjugation, fear, jealousy and guilt.
  
  Most people are so brainwashed by society and false religion that they cannot see that only selfishness can be a rational for decisions.
  
  You didn’t earn that. You don’t own that. You don’t deserve that. You owe it to God, to government, to humanity, to society. Bullcra-p.
  
  The only proper relationship between man and man and man and God is a relationship of free will and love. If you care for the so called “noble” poor out of reverence, obligation or divine slavery you are a poor Christian and a poor human.
  
  She was an atheist, but she was righ
  
  Report this comment
- Psychosis
  Posted on October 26, 2012 at 1:52am
  and its obvious you dont understand Christianity nor Rand
  
  Report this comment
noslave
Posted on October 25, 2012 at 5:21pm
hey bozo when you liberal communists take the food out of your own kids mouths,and re-distribute it to your mutt followers,not take most of it from only hard working americans, i’ll belive it when i see it,you are the biggest hypocrites,giving everybody elses money away while your the most cheapest bastards,eventually you run out of other peoples money??every communist run country proves that??

Report this comment
- taintso
  Posted on October 26, 2012 at 12:24pm
  Just think how much better off we would be if we took the corn out of our gas tanks and put back on the table where it belongs.
  
  Report this comment

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