Archive for the ‘Liberal Media’ Category
Bickering
Oct19
By John Feehery
Newt Gingrich had the line of the night towards the end of the debate when he complained that the moderator encouraged a level of bickering that could only make it harder for the GOP to get the White House.
I don’t think Anderson Cooper was really trying to sink the Republican nominee for President in this debate. He was trying to make an 8-person debate interesting for television. But, if the bi-product is to make all the candidates look silly, well, mission-accomplished.
As Mitt Romney has tried to point out occasionally, we live in complicated times and sometimes the simplest answer is not always the best answer, but giving nuanced explanations in 30 second sound bites is damn near impossible, especially when you have a moderator asking your fiercest opponents to tear your ideas apart in a brief rebuttal.
Most avid Republican primary voters probably have heard that Mitt Romney has a 59-point plan to reform government and revive the economy, but I bet you only two people outside the media and Romney campaign have actually looked through it. Newt Gingrich has a new contract with the American people. Nobody knows anything about it and I am sure all of the other campaigns have their own plans, even Rick Perry.
But no plan is as exciting as Herman Cain’s plan. You know why? Because it is easy to understand and it fits into a 30-second sound bite and makes for great fodder for faux debates like the one hosted by CNN.
In CNN’s defense, their debate is par for the course. Maximize bickering, minimize complicated discussion. That is what we get in the world of pre-primary debates.
In this world, Newt Gingrich thrives. He has set himself up as the man most likely to beat up both President Obama and the national media. He just loves to whack the 4th Estate members who deign to ask him a question. And he clawed his way back into the race because he is so good at showing that he has policy depth just as he is taking one more whack at the people the Republican base hates so much.
Romney and Perry clearly don’t like each other very much and I can’t say I blame them too much. Romney has reason to be peeved at a Perry campaign that keeps raising questions about the Mormon religion. Perry has to be pissed that Romney has called him a slacker when it comes to enforcing immigration laws.
Perry probably should be pretty careful about attacking Romney on hiring an illegal alien. My guess is that the Texas Governor is a good deal less pure on this issue that he likes to let on.
Once again, critical questions weren’t really asked: Who is your first hire when you become President? What powers will you give your Vice President? How will you run your cabinet? How will you engage OPEC, APEC, ASEAN and NATO? How will you manage your White House staff? When you hire staff, what is your highest priority: Political loyalty or competence?
These debates provide little insight into how these candidates will actually govern, which is too bad. That is only thing that really matters.
Obama Campaign Announces It Will Protest Obama Administration
Oct17
By John Feehery
(Chicago, IL) Today, David Axelrod, the chief of the Re-elect Obama Campaign, today announced that it will formally join the Occupy Wall Street protests and start mobilizing against the policies endorsed by the Obama Administration.
Axelrod brandished a Tim Geithner bobblehead doll, which he stabbed repeatedly with a pen knife while chanting an indecipherable spell, which he later said he hoped would lead to the Treasury Secretary’s immediate departure from his office.
Axelrod, in announcing this unusual campaign, said: “We have decided that we aren’t going to defend the indefensible. Yes, we have terrible unemployment. Yes, Wall Street is getting away with murder. Yes, people have lost faith in the future. As much as I have tried, we can’t blame Bush for this anymore. We have to blame the Obama Administration.”
“I believe in Barack Obama, the campaigner. I have lost faith in Barack Obama, the President. So our campaign will basically run against the President and urge his replacement with the guy on the campaign.”
When a reporter pointed out that essentially the campaigner and the President were the same person, Axelrod smirked and said: “No, they are not. You don’t know the real Barack Obama, like I do. The real Barack Obama would never extend the Bush tax cuts, tax cuts that he campaigned against in the last election. The real Barack Obama would never sign an expansion of NAFTA to include Panama, Columbia and South Korea. He said that he would repeal NAFTA in his first campaign for President!”
“The real Barack Obama would never allow his Treasury Secretary to coddle Wall Street like Geithner does. He would never take on the Teacher’s Unions like that Duncan dude does. He would never, ever, play so much damn golf. That is a rich man’s sport. Something in the White House water must compel Presidents to take up that damn game.”
“The Obama campaign is at one with the Occupy Wall Street crowd, and we are going to be using them to help us round up votes to replace the current President with a better, more liberal one.”
“And if that doesn’t work, we will move to replace Barack with Michelle.”
The White House Press Secretary Jay Carney wept uncontrollably when asked about this latest move by the Obama campaign: “I knew I should have stayed at Time Magazine. I am going to slug Biden for getting me into to this,” he said, with tears streaming down his face.
