Is this what Obama meant by ‘revenge’?

Is this what Obama meant by 'revenge'?

'After we win this election, it's our turn – payback time'

Published: 3 hours ago

by Drew ZahnEmail | Archive

Drew Zahn is a former pastor who cut his editing teeth as a member of the award-winning staff of Leadership, Christianity Today's professional journal for church leaders. He is the editor of seven books, including Movie-Based Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching, which sparked his ongoing love affair with film and his weekly WND column, "Popcorn and a (world)view."

When Barack Obama said on the campaign trail, “Voting is the best revenge,” was this what he meant?
A quote allegedly by Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett has been spreading like wildfire online lately: “After we win this election, it’s our turn. Payback time. Everyone not with us is against us, and they better be ready, because we don’t forget. The ones who helped us will be rewarded; the ones who opposed us will get what they deserve. There is going to be hell to pay. Congress won’t be a problem for us this time. No election to worry about after this is over, and we have two judges ready to go.”
The quote, however, is suspect and is at best four steps removed from Jarrett herself.
Though repeatedly widely in hundreds of blogs and even the website of a Philadelphia newspaper, the original source of the quote appears to be a blog site called The Ulsterman Report.
Yet even “Ulsterman” doesn’t claim to have actually heard the words spoken.
The blog merely quotes an unnamed source called “Wall Street Insider,” who quotes an unnamed source in Chicago, who was quoting an unnamed representative from Jarrett’s office, who was allegedly quoting Jarrett.
Obama’s “revenge” remark came at a late-campaign stop in Springfield, Ohio, when he mentioned Republican Mitt Romney’s name and the crowd booed.
“No, no, no, don’t boo. Vote,” Obama told the crowd. “Vote! Voting is the best revenge.”
After the comment prompted criticism, Obama campaign spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki told Politico the president was referring to revenge against GOP challenger Mitt Romney’s “scare tactics” in recent ads.
“The message [Obama] was sending is if you don’t like the policies, if you don’t like the plan that Gov. Romney is putting forward, if you think that’s a bad deal for the middle class, then you can go to the voting booth and cast your ballot,” Psaki told reporters aboard Air Force One. “It’s nothing more complicated than that.”