In defense of Hank Williams Jr.

I'm no fan of either Hank Williams or country music in general, but the criticism of Hank Williams Jr. for his comments made on Fox & Friends is ridiculous.

Williams expressed displeasure with the golf outing pairing Boehner and Obama, calling it a "big mistake."  Asked to explain why he felt that way, Williams said the meeting was like Hitler playing golf with Benjamin Netanyahu.

So Williams compared Obama with Hitler?

The esteemed Ed Morrissey over at Hot Air seems to think so:

To paraphrase Robert Downey Jr in Tropic Thunder: You never go full LaRouchian, dude. Never.

I don’t think Williams was misunderstood at all; he was pretty blunt about it, and claiming that people didn’t catch some alleged nuance is just laughable.

Morrissey needs to check his impulse toward a laughter response and think.  Morrissey's subsequent update helps illustrate the problem:

There’s been some silly defenses of Williams in the comments that claim he didn’t compare Obama to Hitler.  Williams himself admitted he did:

“My analogy was extreme — but it was to make a point. I was simply trying to explain how stupid it seemed to me — how ludicrous that pairing was.  They’re polar opposites and it made no sense.  They don’t see eye-to-eye and never will. I have always respected the office of the President.

“Every time the media brings up the tea party it’s painted as racist and extremists — but there’s never a backlash — no  outrage to those comparisons,” Williams said. “Working class people are hurting — and it doesn’t seem like anybody cares. When both sides are high-fiving it on the ninth hole when everybody else is without a job – it makes a whole lot of us angry.  Something has to change. The policies have to change.”

None of which makes anyone Hitler, champ.

Sorry, Ed, but Williams is not admitting that he compared Obama to Hitler.  All he's admitting is that he drew an analogy.  And he explained the analogy sufficiently for a fair-minded person to grasp his point (I trust Morrissey will grasp it eventually):  Hitler and Netanyahu are ideological opposites.  While we may have a predisposition to identify our least favorite between Boehner and Obama with our least favorite figure from the analogy, the analogy does not depend on that identification at all.  One can understand Boehner as Hitler just as well and the point--that polar opposites are having a ludicrous tete-a-tete--continues to stand.  And one shouldn't have to agree with that point in order to understand it.

What's worse than using Hitler in a comparison?  I'd nominate hypersensitivity to the use of Hitler in a comparison.