Vice President Joe Biden had a great time at last Thursday's debate against Republican Vice Presidential Nominee Paul Ryan. For much of the 90-minute debate, Biden could be seen laughing, smiling and chuckling, even while Ryan was talking about the attack on the Libyan embassy that killed four Americans or about how Iran is drawing closer to building a nuclear weapon that could wipe Israel off the face of the Earth.
The majority of Americans probably thought that Senator Biden was arrogant and condescending to Congressman Ryan, but I view his performance in a slightly different way. I saw his debate performance as a microcosm of the Obama Administration.
Remember when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged her colleagues to pass Obamacare and that they could read it once it was passed? This landmark legislation was shoved down the throats of our elected representatives, or at least the Democratic ones. Not one Republican voted to support this legislation, and the President didn't care anyway. He had enough Democratic votes to pass the legislation, so he didn't need the votes from Republicans. As a result, the most expensive domestic bill ever passed did not even receive a single vote from the minority party.
Although some Americans may view this bill's passage as bold leadership, I view it a little differently. I see it as arrogance. "Trust us," was the message from the President and Democratic leadership. As a result, we have a law that was ruled Constitutional by the narrowest of margins in the Supreme Court and a Chief Justice that used convoluted reasoning to allow the law the stand. We also have a law that people are just now beginning to learn all of its tax and policy ramifications.
But this was not the only occasion when this Administration has displayed arrogance and condescension.
The debt limit crisis of 2011 is another example. According to Bob Woodward's book, "The Price of Power," a deal between the Republicans and Democrats to extend the debt limit was nearly torpedoed by a President who demanded more tax revenue after a deal has been made and who also had a temper tantrum when he did not get his way. Woodward also places blame on House Speaker John Boeher, but he notes a lack of Presidential leadership and that no one in the Administration had Boeher's phone number to remain in contact with him.
For much of the President's time in office, he has belittled and blamed Republicans, spent little to no time actually trying to build relationships with Republican members of Congress or even members of his own party. He has spent much of his term blaming his predecessor for everything and has yet to take responsibility for anything that has occurred under his watch. Yet the President expects Republicans and Democratic members of Congress to ask, "how high?" when he demands them to jump.
Since the passage of Obamacare, Congress hasn't jumped, as evidenced by the Rebublican-controlled House voting down the President's budget 414-0 in 2012, and the Democrat-controlled Senate voting down the President's budget 97-0 in 2011. Not one member of the President's own party voted for these budgets. The same arrogance that Vice President Biden displayed Thursday evening in the debate is undoubtedly the same attitude that the Administration has exhibited when dealing with Congress, so they're pushing back.
A leading member of Congress recently recently shared with a nationally-recognized political pundit that he had "met" the President twice in four years. This leading Congressman made it clear that he did not have a relationship with the President. Recent reports indicate that the President has only met with the top four members of Congress twice this year, although the country is racing towards a fiscal cliff because of the expiring Bush-era tax cuts at the end of this year. The President also recently admitted that he spends time with his family instead of schmoozing with Congress. The Great One apparently doesn't feel hat he has to do the work that other Presidents have done to collaborate with the Legislative Branch of the federal government.
Even the Administration's response to the Libyan embassy attacks smacks of arrogance. There have been so many different explanations for the attacks and lack of security from so many different members of the Administration that the American people as well as the news media are beginning to wonder who has been covering up what in this foreign policy debacle. One day after a representative from the State Department admitted that embassy staff had asked for additional security on several occasions, the Vice President said that "we" had not received any requests for additional security. The next day, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said that the royal "we" vocalized by Biden in the debate referred only to the Vice President and the President and not anyone else in the Administration.
Are you kidding me? This parsing of words reminds me of President Bill Clinton testifying about the meaning of "is."
While being interviewed by Fox News' Brett Baier, Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter recently had the audacity to blame the Romney/Ryan campaign for trying to raise the issue of conflicting statements and potential coverup onto the national stage.
Clearly, if someone in the Obama Administration says something it has to be true and the American people, as well as the news media are expected to believe it. How dare anyone question the Obama Administration's truthfulness, even though its version of the truth changes almost hourly.
In his debate performance, Vice President Biden merely displayed the same attitude toward the opposition party, the American people and even the news media that the Obama Administration has exhibited the past four years.
Americans haven't experienced this level of executive arrogance since the Nixon Administration. Thankfully, the American people can put an end to this arrogance on Nov. 6.
Showing posts with label Stephanie Cutter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stephanie Cutter. Show all posts
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Thursday, August 23, 2012
The Voice of Reason: Is NBC News on Obama's Payroll?
While at home about a week ago, I turned on NBC Nightly News to see how this once well-respected news organization is covering the upcoming Presidential election.
The newscast started out with a piece about Missouri Representative, Republican Todd Akin, who communicated some idiotic beliefs about women having difficulty becoming pregnant after being raped. Next up was a short piece about President Barack Obama's news conference, with footage of him asking why presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney would not release more years of tax returns. The third piece was about a trip to the Middle East in which a Republican member of Congress went skinny dipping. Together, these three stories consumed about one third of the newscast.
The remainder of the newscast consisted of non-campaign issues, including segments about former talk show host Rosie O'Donnell surviving a heart attack by taking an aspiran, the death of comedienne Phyllis Diller and the passing of Scott McKenzie, who performed the 1967 ballad, "San Francisco."
Three cold, hard facts stood out about this newscast: 1) A third of the newscast was consumed with pieces that put Republicans in a negative light; 2) there was no mention of major issues affecting America, including the skyrocketing debt, the unemployment and underemployment of 23 million Americans, or the impending insolvency of entitlement programs; and 3) the quality of NBC News has deteriorated significantly from the days of the well-respected and legendary Huntley-Brinkley Report.
After watching the newscast that evening, I wondered if NBC News is being paid by the Obama Campaign. In reality, a public relations firm paid by the Obama Campaign couldn't have done a better job of spinning the news so that it is favorable to President Obama than NBC News did on that particular newscast. It was that biased.
As a trained journalist, I am appalled and angry at how far journalism has fallen. I am also saddened that there are so few journalists who will report the story and actually take the time to check the facts and statistics spewed by campaigns.
Recent news coverage by the mainstream news media has focused on Akin's stupid remarks, the Obama Campaign continuing to ask for Romney to release more tax returns and other issues that won't help put Americans back to work or stop our country's sprint towards bankruptcy.
Ignoring major challenges facing the country is one issue, allowing outright lies to be broadcast without confronting them is another.
Earlier this week the President's deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter said that more jobs had been created in the past 27 months than following the recessions faced by Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. She implied that President Obama has done a better job at managing the economy following a recession than the two Republicans.
The facts are that the Bush recovery created 200,000 more jobs than the Obama recovery, using the same methodology cited by Cutter, and the Reagan recovery created about twice as many jobs.
http://news.investors.com/article/623290/201208231729/obama-created-half-as-many-jobs-as-reagan.htm
As President Obama said in a recent news conference, "You can't make this stuff up." Actually, Mr. President, your deputy campaign manager is doing just that. And she's done it more than once.
A few news organizations, including Investor's Business Daily and Fox News have challenged Cutter's outright lie with undisputable facts. Most others, including NBC News, haven't taken the time to check to see if what Cutter said was actually true.
Earlier this week, the President was asked in his news conference about the tone of his campaign. He was questioned specifically about his campaign insinuating that Romney may have committed a felony. President Obama replied, "Well, first of all I am not sure that all of those characterizations that you laid out there were accurate. For example, nobody accused Mr. Romney of being a felon."
http://www.examiner.com/article/obama-denies-campaign-called-romney-a-felon-surprise-press-appearance
Again, this was an outright lie. Cutter said in a recent interview, “Either Mitt Romney, through his own words and his own signature, was misrepresenting his position at Bain to the SEC, which is a felony, or he was misrepresenting his position at Bain to the American people to avoid responsibility for some of the consequences of his investments."
Maybe Cutter didn't come straight out and call Romney a felon, but the insinuation was strong enough to make some uninformed voters believe Romney is a felon.
Not one member of the media at that news conference had the intestinal fortitude to point out to the President that one of the highest ranking members of his campaign had indeed strongly hinted that Romney had committed a felony. And only a few, including Fox News, reported in later reports the discrepancy between what the President said and the truth.
In that same news conference earlier this week, the President had the audacity to say, "We point out sharp differences between the candidates, but we don’t go out of bounds.”
Out of bounds? Would you call broadcasting a Super PAC ad accusing Romney of contributing to the cancer death of a woman "out of bounds?" Or would you consider insinuating that Romney is a tax cheat "out of bounds?" What about the Senate Majority Leader saying that the "word's out" Romney hadn't paid any federal income taxes in 10 years? Would you consider that accusation from unnamed sources on the floor of the Senate to be "out of bounds?"
Again, not one member of the media challenged the President.
Even the online news media versions of major news media have been piling on the Republicans. Yesterday, CNN.com featured a front page article about how the Republican convention in Tampa will mean better business for area strip clubs. The fact of the matter is that almost any convention results in increased business for area strip clubs.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/23/politics/tampa-gop-strip-clubs/index.html
I wonder if this same website will do a feature about how the Democratic Convention in Charlotte will result in more business for strip clubs? I would venture a guess that we won't see similar negative coverage prior to that convention. I wouldn't be surprised, though, to see glowing features about the Democratic Convention on almost every website and news broadcast for the mainstream news media in the days before the Democrats head to Charlotte.
The lamestream news media is clearly in the tank for the Obama Campaign and might as well be on his campaign's payroll. It's become that biased.
We can only hope that the American people dig a little deeper than watching NBC Nightly News or reading CNN.com to learn about the major issues facing this country and to determine what is the truth and what is a bold-faced lie.
The newscast started out with a piece about Missouri Representative, Republican Todd Akin, who communicated some idiotic beliefs about women having difficulty becoming pregnant after being raped. Next up was a short piece about President Barack Obama's news conference, with footage of him asking why presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney would not release more years of tax returns. The third piece was about a trip to the Middle East in which a Republican member of Congress went skinny dipping. Together, these three stories consumed about one third of the newscast.
The remainder of the newscast consisted of non-campaign issues, including segments about former talk show host Rosie O'Donnell surviving a heart attack by taking an aspiran, the death of comedienne Phyllis Diller and the passing of Scott McKenzie, who performed the 1967 ballad, "San Francisco."
Three cold, hard facts stood out about this newscast: 1) A third of the newscast was consumed with pieces that put Republicans in a negative light; 2) there was no mention of major issues affecting America, including the skyrocketing debt, the unemployment and underemployment of 23 million Americans, or the impending insolvency of entitlement programs; and 3) the quality of NBC News has deteriorated significantly from the days of the well-respected and legendary Huntley-Brinkley Report.
After watching the newscast that evening, I wondered if NBC News is being paid by the Obama Campaign. In reality, a public relations firm paid by the Obama Campaign couldn't have done a better job of spinning the news so that it is favorable to President Obama than NBC News did on that particular newscast. It was that biased.
As a trained journalist, I am appalled and angry at how far journalism has fallen. I am also saddened that there are so few journalists who will report the story and actually take the time to check the facts and statistics spewed by campaigns.
Recent news coverage by the mainstream news media has focused on Akin's stupid remarks, the Obama Campaign continuing to ask for Romney to release more tax returns and other issues that won't help put Americans back to work or stop our country's sprint towards bankruptcy.
Ignoring major challenges facing the country is one issue, allowing outright lies to be broadcast without confronting them is another.
Earlier this week the President's deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter said that more jobs had been created in the past 27 months than following the recessions faced by Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. She implied that President Obama has done a better job at managing the economy following a recession than the two Republicans.
The facts are that the Bush recovery created 200,000 more jobs than the Obama recovery, using the same methodology cited by Cutter, and the Reagan recovery created about twice as many jobs.
http://news.investors.com/article/623290/201208231729/obama-created-half-as-many-jobs-as-reagan.htm
As President Obama said in a recent news conference, "You can't make this stuff up." Actually, Mr. President, your deputy campaign manager is doing just that. And she's done it more than once.
A few news organizations, including Investor's Business Daily and Fox News have challenged Cutter's outright lie with undisputable facts. Most others, including NBC News, haven't taken the time to check to see if what Cutter said was actually true.
Earlier this week, the President was asked in his news conference about the tone of his campaign. He was questioned specifically about his campaign insinuating that Romney may have committed a felony. President Obama replied, "Well, first of all I am not sure that all of those characterizations that you laid out there were accurate. For example, nobody accused Mr. Romney of being a felon."
http://www.examiner.com/article/obama-denies-campaign-called-romney-a-felon-surprise-press-appearance
Again, this was an outright lie. Cutter said in a recent interview, “Either Mitt Romney, through his own words and his own signature, was misrepresenting his position at Bain to the SEC, which is a felony, or he was misrepresenting his position at Bain to the American people to avoid responsibility for some of the consequences of his investments."
Maybe Cutter didn't come straight out and call Romney a felon, but the insinuation was strong enough to make some uninformed voters believe Romney is a felon.
Not one member of the media at that news conference had the intestinal fortitude to point out to the President that one of the highest ranking members of his campaign had indeed strongly hinted that Romney had committed a felony. And only a few, including Fox News, reported in later reports the discrepancy between what the President said and the truth.
In that same news conference earlier this week, the President had the audacity to say, "We point out sharp differences between the candidates, but we don’t go out of bounds.”
Out of bounds? Would you call broadcasting a Super PAC ad accusing Romney of contributing to the cancer death of a woman "out of bounds?" Or would you consider insinuating that Romney is a tax cheat "out of bounds?" What about the Senate Majority Leader saying that the "word's out" Romney hadn't paid any federal income taxes in 10 years? Would you consider that accusation from unnamed sources on the floor of the Senate to be "out of bounds?"
Again, not one member of the media challenged the President.
Even the online news media versions of major news media have been piling on the Republicans. Yesterday, CNN.com featured a front page article about how the Republican convention in Tampa will mean better business for area strip clubs. The fact of the matter is that almost any convention results in increased business for area strip clubs.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/23/politics/tampa-gop-strip-clubs/index.html
I wonder if this same website will do a feature about how the Democratic Convention in Charlotte will result in more business for strip clubs? I would venture a guess that we won't see similar negative coverage prior to that convention. I wouldn't be surprised, though, to see glowing features about the Democratic Convention on almost every website and news broadcast for the mainstream news media in the days before the Democrats head to Charlotte.
The lamestream news media is clearly in the tank for the Obama Campaign and might as well be on his campaign's payroll. It's become that biased.
We can only hope that the American people dig a little deeper than watching NBC Nightly News or reading CNN.com to learn about the major issues facing this country and to determine what is the truth and what is a bold-faced lie.
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