On Labor Day, following Teamsters Union president Jimmy Hoffa’s declaration of war on Tea Partiers and similar “sons of bitches,” President Obama nuzzled up to Big Labor unions assembled in Detroit in a speech filled with the typical ringing defense of unions as the backbone of American prosperity. Necessarily, then, this speech required President Obama to make at least one patently absurd remark, and a few others more than a little difficult to justify.

For instance, Obama said that “unions have always been about — shared prosperity.” A few moments later, he explained: