At an appearance in New Hampshire last week, Mr. Perry, struggling to regain momentum in the race, made reference to the quote, which he said was sent to him by his son.
“This was in Toronto,” he told the crowd before paraphrasing the fabricated quote in an Oct. 21 Globe and Mail essay by freelancer Mark Schatzker. The piece was clearly labelled satire.
Mr. Perry summarized the quote as: “I guess greed just makes you work hard.”
The actual fake quote in Mr. Schatzker’s piece was attributed to “Jeremy, 38,” from the Occupy Toronto protests: “It’s weird protesting on Bay Street. You get there at 9 a.m. and the rich bankers who you want to hurl insults at and change their world view have been at work for two hours already. And then when it’s time to go, they’re still there. I guess that’s why they call them the one per cent. I mean, who wants to work those kinds of hours? That’s the power of greed.”
Mr. Perry’s remarks came on the heels of a hue and cry amid the conservative blogosphere last week about the boneheaded “Jeremy.”
Conservative blogger John Hinderaker seized upon Jeremy on the Power Line blog in a post entitled: “Greed? Try Sloth!” In a later update, Mr. Hinderaker said his wife had pointed out to him that the quote was a joke but added: “The point, I think, remains valid.”
Globe and Mail. The American Spectator and a Republican Facebook page, also thought the fake quote was real.
The use of the fake Occupy Toronto quote was noticed by Mediate. He used the quote to discredit Occupy Wall Street protesters. If Perry wasn’t drinking, what medication is he on?
Perry’s speech at a New Hampshire Cornerstone Action Dinner Friday night raised eyebrows for it’s er, unbridled er, energy.
I recall seeing that quote myself while surfing the Globe and Mail; I don’t quite recall the satire label being on it at the time. That’s not to say it wasn’t there. In addition, satire can include straight quotes that are stranger than life, like Dave Barry’s “I’m not making this up” essays.
Were I in the mood to find an anti-Occupy quote to put on my blog, I might very well have bit on that as Perry and others have. It was a good quote the proved to be too good to be true but full of truthiness.