I listened to a few minutes each of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck and Laura Ingraham to hear their takes on Scott McClellan's upcoming book. I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was anyway. They all had the same take.
Scott McClellan has no credibility. He was disgruntled. Why didn't he quit sooner if he disagreed so much with what the White House was doing.
Did any of them look at what McClellan is actually saying? Not that I heard. Did any of them address his assertion that the White House is in constant campaign mode, and that Washington in general operates that way, and how that's bad for America? Nope.
Do I think McClellan is the epitome of credibility? No. Of all of Bush's press secretaries, he was the worst at it. He's going to write his book to make himself look good, even though he says he's harder on himself than anyone else. I do find it weird he's only going to NBC (Today Show, Meet the Press) to do his interviews. And why would he give a cable exclusive to MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, the most vociferous anti-Bush host on all of cable news? Maybe because he'll give him the least amount of grief? I guess we'll see tonight.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Scott McClellan tells all
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0508/10649.html
Other disgruntled Bush employees have done tell-alls, and the White House has found ways to marginalize and dismiss them. I don't think it's going to be so easy to sweep Scott McCellan under the rug. For one thing, so much of what he's revealing rings true and feels like things we already know. Yes, the Bush White House has felt like one long campaign instead of actual governing. Yes, they oversold the war. I don't see this affecting McCain much, but it seems to be cementing Bush's legacy.
Other disgruntled Bush employees have done tell-alls, and the White House has found ways to marginalize and dismiss them. I don't think it's going to be so easy to sweep Scott McCellan under the rug. For one thing, so much of what he's revealing rings true and feels like things we already know. Yes, the Bush White House has felt like one long campaign instead of actual governing. Yes, they oversold the war. I don't see this affecting McCain much, but it seems to be cementing Bush's legacy.
Monday, May 26, 2008
More Hillary / RFK Stuff
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/05/why-krugman-is.html
Andrew Sullivan's take on Paul Krugman's defense of the Hillary's RFK gaffe.
I watched the Meet the Press Sunday roundtable, the Fox News Sunday roundtable, and Keith Olbermann all react to the Hillary RFK assassination comment. We're at a very strange time in our political history. Fox News was founded in the 1990's as a seeming counterbalance to the perceived left-wing cable news organizations, at least "the media" is one of the favorites whipping boys of conservatives. So here comes "fair and balanced" Fox News, which means we lean conservative. Now Fox News is like the pro-Hillary channel. I was amazed that all of them thought it was no big deal.
The Meet the Press group was a little more disturbed by her comments, although the analysis tended toward "well, this kills her bid to be Vice-President."
Then there was Olbermann. Look up his rant on YouTube, May 23, and he's doing his thing. Keith is a good performer when it comes to red-faced rants. He imagines himself a latter-day Edward R. Murrow, I guess, right down to his sign off of "Good night and good luck." When you disagree with him, these rants come off as grandstanding, hypocritical, phony, hateful, etc. it's hard for me to tell when he's really feeling righteous indignation since he seems able to morph his feelings on a dime. One second he's pretending to be an impartial observer on election-night coverage, then Countdown starts and for the next hour his show might as well be called "I Hate Bill O'Reilly."
His Hillary rant probably cemented in her campaign's mind that MSNBC is the pro-Obama channel. So they go to Fox News, where Terry McAuliffe is fawning to Chris Wallace, "You guys are fair and balanced." Did you ever think you'd see McAuliffe saying that to Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday, and not sarcastically? Didn't Bill Clinton wag his finger in Wallace's face last year?
Back to Keith. He's not one I seek out, but I had to agree with a lot of what he was saying. Hillary said out loud what no one should, no political figure anyway. She gave oxygen to the thought everyone's having, but no one wants to be out there, publically, for one whack nut to seize onto and make his own. Barack Obama has Secret Service detail on him for a reason. If they killed JFK, RFK, MLK, Malcolm X, Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, and tried to kill Reagan, Ford, Nixon, and others, isn't Barack Obama the perfect candidate for a psychotic loser to try to make an infamous name for himself?
Hillary's lack of apology is the one that I still can't comprehend. She can't be that politically tone-deaf. But now her people are already accusing the Obama camp of exploiting it, so the political wheel continues to spin.
Andrew Sullivan's take on Paul Krugman's defense of the Hillary's RFK gaffe.
I watched the Meet the Press Sunday roundtable, the Fox News Sunday roundtable, and Keith Olbermann all react to the Hillary RFK assassination comment. We're at a very strange time in our political history. Fox News was founded in the 1990's as a seeming counterbalance to the perceived left-wing cable news organizations, at least "the media" is one of the favorites whipping boys of conservatives. So here comes "fair and balanced" Fox News, which means we lean conservative. Now Fox News is like the pro-Hillary channel. I was amazed that all of them thought it was no big deal.
The Meet the Press group was a little more disturbed by her comments, although the analysis tended toward "well, this kills her bid to be Vice-President."
Then there was Olbermann. Look up his rant on YouTube, May 23, and he's doing his thing. Keith is a good performer when it comes to red-faced rants. He imagines himself a latter-day Edward R. Murrow, I guess, right down to his sign off of "Good night and good luck." When you disagree with him, these rants come off as grandstanding, hypocritical, phony, hateful, etc. it's hard for me to tell when he's really feeling righteous indignation since he seems able to morph his feelings on a dime. One second he's pretending to be an impartial observer on election-night coverage, then Countdown starts and for the next hour his show might as well be called "I Hate Bill O'Reilly."
His Hillary rant probably cemented in her campaign's mind that MSNBC is the pro-Obama channel. So they go to Fox News, where Terry McAuliffe is fawning to Chris Wallace, "You guys are fair and balanced." Did you ever think you'd see McAuliffe saying that to Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday, and not sarcastically? Didn't Bill Clinton wag his finger in Wallace's face last year?
Back to Keith. He's not one I seek out, but I had to agree with a lot of what he was saying. Hillary said out loud what no one should, no political figure anyway. She gave oxygen to the thought everyone's having, but no one wants to be out there, publically, for one whack nut to seize onto and make his own. Barack Obama has Secret Service detail on him for a reason. If they killed JFK, RFK, MLK, Malcolm X, Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, and tried to kill Reagan, Ford, Nixon, and others, isn't Barack Obama the perfect candidate for a psychotic loser to try to make an infamous name for himself?
Hillary's lack of apology is the one that I still can't comprehend. She can't be that politically tone-deaf. But now her people are already accusing the Obama camp of exploiting it, so the political wheel continues to spin.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Hillary's comments on RFK
The unease still lingers in the air over Hillary Clinton's comments, when she gave the rationale she shouldn't drop out of the race yet, as Bill Clinton didn't cinch the Democratic nomination until June 1992, and Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June 1968 on his way to the nomination.
This was her apology:
"I regret that if my referencing that moment of trauma for our entire nation and in particular the Kennedy family was in any way offensive."
In politico-speak, it doesn't really sound like an apology. At the same time, RFK Jr. came out on her side. But there it is. Hillary floated the idea of Obama getting assassinated in June as one reason to stay in the race.
This was her apology:
"I regret that if my referencing that moment of trauma for our entire nation and in particular the Kennedy family was in any way offensive."
In politico-speak, it doesn't really sound like an apology. At the same time, RFK Jr. came out on her side. But there it is. Hillary floated the idea of Obama getting assassinated in June as one reason to stay in the race.
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