Obama, as is his way, twists even legends so that they double back and deny their original meaning. In this instance, it is his lame claim that Mitt Romney is some kind of “reverse Robin Hood.”
In the Robin Hood legend that most of us know, Robin led his band of greenwood outlaws against the depredations of wicked King John Lackland, who stole the throne from his brother, Richard the Lionhearted.
The point is that Robin and his band were fighting against a centralized government tyranny. A tyranny that over-taxed and suppressed the Saxon people who were still under the boot of the Norman invaders.
Recall that the legend took place early in the 13th century, barely a century and a half since the invasion of William the Conqueror. Even in the early 1200s, the overlords spoke Norman French, while the Britons spoke Saxon or Welsh. English as we understand the language was just coming into being, with the incorporation of effete French words being used by those who would suck up to the French nobility.
Robin Hood, a Briton, was simply doing what we all should do today: resist the confiscation of our property by an over-powerful central government. In Robin’s day, that would have been King John. Today, it’s Barack Obama.
So, bring on your comparisons, King Barack Lackland. Robin’s the good guy; King John isn’t. And Mitt Romney, with his calls to reduce taxation and regulation, is much more like Robin Hood than you are.
