Obama: Fraud-In-Chief?

Discussion in 'Politics' started by Tom B, Jun 23, 2009.

  1. But you lost to the "retard." That makes you a subretard. Do you see how that works?
     
    #31     Jun 23, 2009
  2. Like Fox News never tore Bush apart on anything. Look at how Fox News covered Bush's immigration reform and please explain how that was a script from the Bush White House.
     
    #32     Jun 24, 2009
  3. I have watched Fox News for several minutes at a time on numerous occasions spanning a considerable length of time. I find that a number of their "personalities" are flippant, arrogant and comparatively shallow. Whatever else you may say about CNN, it is, relatively speaking, far more objective and the analysis is considerabaly more nuanced. While far from perfect, CNN is by far the thinking person's choice between the two.
     
    #33     Jun 24, 2009
  4. I don't remember the Clinton News Network being part of the debate. You said Fox News was reading from script provided by the Bush Whitehouse. I smoked your argument. CNN was never brought up. Stay on topic, pal.
     
    #34     Jun 24, 2009
  5. Evidently, you graduated at the top of your class from the Laughing Academy.
     
    #35     Jun 24, 2009
  6. "Smoked?" Get real. Don't judge something by its exceptions.
     
    #36     Jun 24, 2009
  7. Did you just think of that yourself? It sounds like you have no counter-punch on this. You are exposed.
     
    #37     Jun 24, 2009
  8. Tom B

    Tom B

    Stay Tuned for More of 'The Obama Show'

    By Dana Milbank
    Wednesday, June 24, 2009

    In his first daytime news conference yesterday, President Obama preempted "All My Children," "Days of Our Lives" and "The Young and the Restless." But the soap viewers shouldn't have been disappointed: The president had arranged some prepackaged entertainment for them.

    After the obligatory first question from the Associated Press, Obama treated the overflowing White House briefing room to a surprise. "I know Nico Pitney is here from the Huffington Post," he announced.

    Obama knew this because White House aides had called Pitney the day before to invite him, and they had escorted him into the room. They told him the president was likely to call on him, with the understanding that he would ask a question about Iran that had been submitted online by an Iranian. "I know that there may actually be questions from people in Iran who are communicating through the Internet," Obama went on. "Do you have a question?"

    Pitney recognized his prompt. "That's right," he said, standing in the aisle and wearing a temporary White House press pass. "I wanted to use this opportunity to ask you a question directly from an Iranian."

    Pitney asked his arranged question. Reporters looked at one another in amazement at the stagecraft they were witnessing. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel grinned at the surprised TV correspondents in the first row.

    The use of planted questioners is a no-no at presidential news conferences, because it sends a message to the world -- Iran included -- that the American press isn't as free as advertised. But yesterday wasn't so much a news conference as it was a taping of a new daytime drama, "The Obama Show." Missed yesterday's show? Don't worry: On Wednesday, ABC News will be broadcasting "Good Morning America" from the South Lawn (guest stars: the president and first lady), "World News Tonight" from the Blue Room, and a prime-time feature with Obama from the East Room.

    "The Obama Show" was the hottest ticket in town yesterday. Forty-five minutes before the start, there were no fewer than 107 people crammed into the narrow aisles, in addition to those in the room's 42 seats. Japanese and Italian could be heard coming from the tangle of elbows, cameras and compressed bodies: "You've got to move! . . . Oh, God, don't step on my foot!" Some had come just for a glimpse of celebrity. And they wanted to know all about him. "As a former smoker, I understand the frustration and the fear that comes with quitting," McClatchy News's Margaret Talev empathized with the president before asking him how much he smokes.

    Obama indulged the question from the studio audience. "I would say that I am 95 percent cured. But there are times where I mess up," he confessed. "Like folks who go to AA, you know, once you've gone down this path, then, you know, it's something you continually struggle with."

    This is Barack Obama, and these are the Days of Our Lives.

    As if to compensate for the prepackaged Huffington Post question, Obama went quickly to Fox News for a predictably hostile question from Major Garrett. "In your opening remarks, sir, you said about Iran that you were appalled and outraged," Garrett said. "What took you so long?

    "I don't think that's accurate," Obama volleyed testily, calling his toughening statements on Iran "entirely consistent."

    The host of "The Obama Show" dispatched with similar ease a challenge from CBS's Chip Reid, asking whether his hardening line on Iran was inspired by John McCain. "What do you think?" Obama replied with a big grin. That brought the house down. And the studio audience laughed again when ABC's Jake Tapper tried to get Obama to answer another reporter's question that he had dodged. "Are you the ombudsman for the White House press corps?" the president cracked.

    The laughter had barely subsided when the host made another joke about Tapper's reference to Obama's "Spock-like language about the logic of the health-care plan."

    "The reference to Spock, is that a crack on my ears?" the president asked.

    But yesterday's daytime drama belonged primarily to Pitney, of the Huffington Post Web site. During the eight years of the Bush administration, liberal outlets such as the Huffington Post often accused the White House of planting questioners in news conferences to ask preplanned questions. But here was Obama fielding a preplanned question asked by a planted questioner -- from the Huffington Post.

    Pitney said the White House, though not aware of the question's wording, asked him to come up with a question about Iran proposed by an Iranian. And, as it turned out, he was not the only prearranged questioner at yesterday's show. Later, Obama passed over the usual suspects to call on Macarena Vidal of the Spanish-language EFE news agency. The White House called Vidal in advance to see whether she was coming and arranged for her to sit in a seat usually assigned to a financial trade publication. She asked about Chile and Colombia.

    A couple of more questions and Obama called it a day. "Mr. President!" yelled Mike Allen of Politico. "May I ask about Afghanistan? No questions about Iraq or Afghanistan?"

    Sorry: Those weren't prearranged.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/23/AR2009062303262_pf.html
     
    #38     Jun 24, 2009