The Media and Paul Ryan
Aug30
By John Feehery
Stephanie Cutter, Top Strategist for the Obama Campaign / Credit to Twitchy.com for image.
In the immediate aftermath of Paul Ryan’s speech last night, I went to the CNN grill to get a couple beers and see some friends.
For those who don’t know, CNN sponsors a mini restaurant and bar at a choice location on the grounds of the convention center. It is brilliant on their part, because for media types who want a cocktail and their sources, it is a convenient place to meet, and ultimately, it is great marketing for the last place cable network.
It is not just CNN reporters and producers who show up. Just about every media celebrity from every cable network, newspaper and blog come by for a beer and a burger. Of course, they also have healthy food options, if that is what you are looking for.
The best thing about the CNN grill is that the food and beer are free. Well, they aren’t free, but they don’t make us pay for them. Somebody else is picking up the tab, kind of like Obama’s free condoms. In that case, the free birth control is being picked up by the taxpayers, but I am pretty sure the CNN grill is not.
It is nice when somebody picks up the the tab because it means that many reporters, who like free stuff, have a few beers and they tell you what they really think.
And what they really thought about Paul Ryan’s speech is that he hit it out of the park. Home run. Exceeded expectations. Big winner for Romney. Great stuff.
Of course, that was before Stephanie Cutter, the top strategist for the Obama campaign got to work. Her line was pretty simple. Paul Ryan is a liar. He lied about Simpson Bowles. He lied about Obama’s Medicare cuts. He lied about AC/DC and led Zeppelin. Lied, lied, lied.
And now that is the new conventional wisdom analysis of the Ryan speech. But of course, that is a lie. Paul Ryan told the precise truth in his speech last night. He condemned Obama for slashing Medicare to pay for obamacare. That Ryan has a plan to reform medicare that happens to save the same amount of money as the Obama cuts is irrelevant. Ryan did not cut medicare to pay for obamacare.
And yes, Paul Ryan voted against the Simpson Bowles commission recommendations. But Ryan had no choice, as Simpson Bowles basically punted when it came to fundamental entitlement reform. Ryan did not propose Simpson Bowles only to walk away from it. Obama did. And Paul Ryan isn’t the president. He is the Chairman of the Budget Committee who, by the way, twice passed a budget through the House of Representatives. Obama is the president, and his budget proposal was such a joke, it couldn’t pass gas. It garnered zero votes in the House and the Senate.
So what Paul Ryan said wasn’t just technically accurate. It was existentially accurate.
And if you asked the media what they though about the Ryan speech after a few beers and before Stephanie Cutter, they would have thought that the speech was a winner for the GOP.
I think the truth about our credit being downgraded is because of excessive partisanship which I hold the Tea Party mostly responsible for. As for fact checking, it looks to me that BOTH sides are guilty of not telling the truth most of the time which I think is a very unfortunate thing for the country:
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1208/26/cnnitm.01.html
YOUR MONEY
Aired August 26, 2012 – 15:00 ET
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: “Team Romney and Team Obama criticized each other for running misleading ads all while running false ads of their own. It’s so bad that a team of former MIT students have created an iPhone app that can listen — help you listen to an ad and verify its claims. And then there are that the candidates themselves. PolitiFact has rated 155 of Mitt Romney’s statements, 155. They found that just 29 percent of them were true or mostly true. President Obama’s scores — a little better, 47 percent. Less than half for both of them…”
It seems that the Romney campaign does not care about fact checking and I would say the same thing about the Democrats when Debbie Wasserman Schultz knowing took a quote out of context and stood behind it when confronted by Anderson Cooper on CNN:
1) The Romney Campaign (Romney pollster Neil Newhouse responded to the criticism, saying, “We’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers”):
http://www.mediaite.com/online/romney-pollster-we-wont-let-our-campaign-be-dictated-by-fact-checkers/
Romney Pollster: We Won’t ‘Let Our Campaign Be Dictated By Fact-Checkers’
by Josh Feldman | 12:16 pm, August 28th, 2012
“For the past month, the Republican campaign has been hammering President Obama over cutting out work requirements for welfare. The Romney campaign has been rebutted by many fact-checking organizations over inaccuracies in the claim, and during a panel discussion today, Romney pollster Neil Newhouse responded to the criticism, saying, “We’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers.”
Earlier this month, after Mitt Romney alleged that under Obama’s welfare plan, “you wouldn’t have to work… they just send you your welfare check,” PolitiFact rated his claim Pants on Fire. PolitiFact said it was a “distortion of the planned changes” in current welfare law…”
2) Anderson Cooper keeping Debbie Wasserman Schultz honest by exposing what she said that was wrong (a video is included):
http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/23/anderson-cooper-keeps-dnc-honest/?hpt=ac_mid
August 23rd, 2012
11:36 PM ET
Anderson Cooper ‘keeps DNC honest’
CNN’s Anderson Cooper questions DNC Chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz about various platform issues.
Read more…
Post by: Anderson Cooper
Filed under: 2012 Election • Anderson Cooper • Debbie Wasserman Schultz • Democratic National Convention • Democrats • Keeping Them Honest • Mitt Romney • Rep. Akin
This is a truly sad thing for the country in my opinion. I think that Citizens United will only make things even worse because campaigns on BOTH sides will be able to run false or deceptive ads which more people will see far more than what fact-checkers and the media can say!