[Vocabulary] defend my record

[Goraemon]

Hi there,
I read this phrase "defend my record" in Obama's A Promised Land, page 16, where the context goes" Three of these guys ---Bobby Titcomb, Greg Orme, and Mike Ramos---remain some of my closest friends. To this day, we can laugh for hours over stories of our misspent youth. In later years, they would throw themselves into my campaigns with a loyalty for which I will always be grateful, becoming as skilled at defending my record as anyone at MSNBC. "
So I can see the author refers to his friends helped with his campaigns but just what does the ”record ” mean here? Why does the record needs to be defend?
My guess, maybe his friends showed up at MSNBC (the dictionary says that's a show or program on radio or TV) to verify the author's words were true.
The phrase "Throw themselves into my campaigns" suggests the friends did quite some works, so it should not be just as simple as to verify some words.
Can anyone kindly advice on this usage? Thanks.

 

[jutfrank]

I'm quite surprised that nobody yet seems confident enough to say what it means, so I'll give it a go.

As a British person who is not especially familiar with US politics, I might not be the best placed person to answer, but I would say that Mr Obama is using the word record to talk about his track history, both personal and professional. When you're campaigning to be the President of the United States, you face a lot of people, including rival candidates, other politicians, and a multitude of people in the media, who would like to bring up things that you've done in the past that can make you look bad. Obama is saying that he came to rely on his friends to defend him from these attacks.

 

[TheParser]

NOT A TEACHER

Goraemon, MSNBC is a cable television station in the United States. During President Obama's eight years as President, the reporters and commentators at MSNBC supported President Obama's policies.

In the quotation, President Obama is saying something like this: My three friends were equally as skilled at defending my policies as my friends at MSNBC were.

 

[Goraemon]

Thanks for helping out with the background knowledge of the potential attacks that the US President needs to respond to, despite the differences in Britain. I remembered watching the former Prime Minister Theresa (not sure if it is the proper way to refer to her with the first name) talking at the House of Commons and that was boisterous and witty. The way how things are run here is quite different.


It’s my first thread at this website UsingEnglish and it’s wonderfully helpful here. It’s a grateful thing to know I can get help from others when the dictionary and search engine don’t deliver any useful results.

 

[emsr2d2]

Hi there,

I read this phrase "defend my record" in Obama's A Promised Land, page 16, where the context goes

" Three of these guys ---Bobby Titcomb, Greg Orme, and Mike Ramos---remain some of my closest friends. To this day, we can laugh for hours over stories of our misspent youth. In later years, they would throw themselves into my campaigns with a loyalty for which I will always be grateful, becoming as skilled at defending my record as anyone at MSNBC. "

So I can see the author refers to his friends helped with his campaigns but just what does the ”record ” mean here? Why does the record needs to be defend?
My guess, maybe his friends showed up at MSNBC (the dictionary says that's a show or program on radio or TV) to verify the author's words were true.
The phrase "Throw themselves into my campaigns" suggests the friends did quite some works, so it should not be just as simple as to verify some words.

Can anyone kindly advice on this usage? Thanks.

Thanks for helping out with the background knowledge of the potential attacks that the US President needs to respond to, despite the differences in Britain. I remembered watching the former Prime Minister Theresa (not sure if it is the proper way to refer to her with the first name) talking at the House of Commons and that was boisterous and witty. The way how things are run here is quite different.

It’s my first thread at this website UsingEnglish and it’s wonderfully helpful here. It’s a grateful thing to know I can get help from others when the dictionary and search engine don’t deliver any useful results.

Goraemon, for future reference, please put some empty line spaces in your posts. When I saw post #1 of this thread, I was faced with a big block of text with no attempt to make paragraphs. I didn't even read it. I have added breaks to both your posts in the quote box above. Can you see how much easier they are to read? (There are some errors to fix in both of your posts but I don't have time now. If someone else hasn't done it by the time I get home from work, I'll do them.)

 

[Goraemon]

I read through the classification on threads and thought I should go to ASK A TEACHER for this phrase usage. Not sure if there is any other classification I can go to. Anyone who can answer this for me is welcomed. No need to be a teacher.


Thanks for pointing out MSNBC's support for President Obama. That makes a lot of sense why they defend there, instead of at any other media.
Thanks for bringing attention to the underlined word “equally”. If there is no "as... as" in "as skilled at skilled at defending my record as anyone at MSNBC", that would leave it to "skilled at defending my record", which would make the work they did seemed ... not as important. It's an acknowledgement to the collective work at MSNBC which is big and important, by using "as... as".

 

[Goraemon]

Thank you Moderator!
Will bear that in mind.

 

[Goraemon]

Goraemon, for future reference, please put some empty line spaces in your posts. When I saw post #1 of this thread, I was faced with a big block of text with no attempt to make paragraphs. I didn't even read it. I have added breaks to both your posts in the quote box above. Can you see how much easier they are to read? (There are some errors to fix in both of your posts but I don't have time now. If someone else hasn't done it by the time I get home from work, I'll do them.)

It seemed like for the Post #1, there isn't "Edit" choice for me anynore. I can edit the other ones though. Thank you for taking the time to read and reach out to me.

 

[Tarheel]

Goraemon, you can edit your post for 24 hours after you post it.

Are you really an English teacher?

 

[Tarheel]

I read through the classification on threads and thought I should go to ASK A TEACHER for this phrase usage. I'm not sure if there is any other classification I can go to. Anyone who can answer this for me is welcome to. There is no need for you to be a teacher.

Your posts tend to be rather lengthy. That makes it harder for me to offer corrections/suggestions.

I call them subforums. If you want to call them classifications, okay.

If it's necessary a moderator can move a thread to a different subforum.

 

[Goraemon]

For the record, I am the one who post this thread. I am not aware that I have to be an English teacher to ask another teacher a question here. I read the Announcement of Ask a Teacher and to my understanding, it says English learners can ask questions here.


Or, maybe you thought I answered this thread for how my posts show up. The fact is that I learned that in order to connect my response to an answer I got here, I have to select “Reply With Quote”. But at first I had chosen “Reply” button at the bottom of the very answer box, and assumed it would do the matching effect. Now I know how it works here.


However, I am a non-native English teacher.

Goraemon, you can edit your post for 24 hours after you post it.

Are you really an English teacher?

 

[Tarheel]

My apologies.

 

[Goraemon]

My apologies.

Hey, no worries. I appreciate that you point out the mistakes in my posts and correct them with words in red colour. It’s great to have chances to learn here.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Hi there,
I read this phrase, "defend my record," in Obama's A Promised Land [put book titles in italics], page 16, where the text goes, "Three of these guys ---Bobby Titcomb, Greg Orme, and Mike Ramos---remain some of my closest friends. To this day, we can laugh for hours over stories of our misspent youth. In later years, they would throw themselves into my campaigns with a loyalty for which I will always be grateful, becoming as skilled at defending my record as anyone at MSNBC.[no space]"
So I can see the author refers to his friends who helped with his campaigns, but just what does the ”record” mean here? Why does the record needs to be defended?
My guess: Maybe his friends showed up at MSNBC (the dictionary says that's a TV network) to verify that the author's words were true.

No.

The phrase "Throw themselves into my campaigns" suggests the friends did quite a lot of work, so it should not be just as simple as verifying some words.
Can anyone kindly advise on this usage? Thanks.

It looks like it was explained pretty well above.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

I'm quite surprised that nobody yet seems confident enough to say what it means, so I'll give it a go.

As a British person who is not especially familiar with US politics, I might not be the best placed person to answer, but I would say that Mr Obama is using the word record to talk about his track history, both personal and professional. When you're campaigning to be the President of the United States, you face a lot of people, including rival candidates, other politicians, and a multitude of people in the media, who would like to bring up things that you've done in the past that can make you look bad. Obama is saying that he came to rely on his friends to defend him from these attacks.

Exactly. To defend Obama's record is to stick up for him, to support him, to advocate for him when his record (in this context, his history of accomplishments) is disputed or disparaged.

It has nothing to do with going on TV. You can defend someone's record at home, at work, on the subway, or in a pub.