Politico's Vandehei: Obama Campaign 'Insanely Political', Buffett Rule 'Total Gimmickry'
Va-va-va-VandeHei! NewsBusters has frequently documented Politico's Dem-friendly tilt. But there was a pronounced flying pig moment for Politico this morning as its executive editor Jim VandeHei: ripped the Obama campaign as "insanely political;" described the Buffett Rule as "total gimmickry;" and opined that President Obama has given up on promoting any big ideas in favor of targeting various demographic groups.
Vandehei made his suprisingly candid comments on today's Morning Joe in the context of a Dana Milbank column in which the Washington Post, never accused of being a conservative, also denounced the Buffett Rule as gimmickry. View the video after the jump.
Watch VandeHei's refreshingly frank commentary.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Do you think the Buffett rule is gimmickry?
JOE SCARBOROUGH: I do.
BRZEZINSKI: I don't.
JIM VANDEHEI: It's total gimmickry.
BRZEZINSKI: Oh, come on.
VANDEHEI: It's 1% of what you need to get, to actually take care of the deficit. And there's a big danger for President Obama in that they've become so insanely political in an insanely political culture. Almost everything they do now is either, is targeted at a specific sub-set of voters that they want to win. Everything's going to be about Hispanics and women. Watch every single day. You're going to see some event, some message, aimed directly at them. Not about having a serious policy debate; he's not offered tax reform when he could have offered tax reform. Did not offer budgets when he could have offered budgets. So you might love the guy, and there's many things that I get that people like about him as president. But in this season, he's made the calculation to be extremely political, because they think it's going to be a close election, and they need to target these demographics. The idea that the Buffett Rule, that that is going to do anything to change the problems that the country has, either with the tax or the pile of deficits is [inaudible].
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Comments
Yep, just saw a pig fly by my
Submitted by motherbelt on Thu, 04/12/2012 - 8:12am.
Yep, just saw a pig fly by my window!
Mr. President, when even Politico admits you're just pandering, it's time to look in the mirror. You're not hiding it very well.
What galls me is that the maimstream media are mostly ignoring this truth, just like they pretty much ignored his saying that raising the capital gains tax was the "fair" thing to do, even if it reduced revenues.
My slogan for the 2012 Obama campaign: No class. Just class warfare.
More like a flying ox
Submitted by needle on Thu, 04/12/2012 - 8:16am.
But I am still not going to change my morning schedule around to watch Morning Joe.
- Looking forward to the self-annihilation of the Manipulated Stories Machine.
"Oh, come on"
Submitted by mom_rox on Thu, 04/12/2012 - 8:19am.
I guess the White House couldn't transmit a better retort for Mika quickly enough, so she had to come up with one on her own. (It showed.)
Right. She had to quickly
Submitted by motherbelt on Thu, 04/12/2012 - 8:25am.
Right. She had to quickly channel Nancy Pelosi's "Are you serious?" LOL
That's apparently the go-to when a liberal doesn't have a real argument.
LEAVE MIKA ALONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Submitted by adamsmith on Thu, 04/12/2012 - 9:31am.
It's not funny to make fun of retards. She can't help being born a Special Needs Communist......
You must think it's funny...
Submitted by Ms. Independent on Thu, 04/12/2012 - 10:04am.
otherwise you would not have insulted the disabled by using the word "retard" or comparing them to that moron. With a remark like yours there is no wonder why people think the right is intolerant and xenophobic.
Ok to use "moron" like you
Submitted by ThisnThat on Thu, 04/12/2012 - 10:18am.
Ok to use "moron" like you just did, but not ok to use "retard"? That's the trouble with PC police, you can't get your moving targets to stay stationary, can you?
BTW, you missed a big one, even used in the title: "Insane". How dare anyone use that word, especially against o'bama. Doesn't that make him racist, too? Comeon, let's step it up here, and hand out some more PC tickets, ok?
__________
“Didn't win the Medal of Honor? Didn't even serve? Then lie about it. We'll support you." — 9th Circuit Court
I'm not the PC police -
Submitted by Ms. Independent on Thu, 04/12/2012 - 11:00am.
I'm the mother of a disabled child and I find that term to be extremely derogative. It is meant to belittle people. I understand that you have every right in the world to use it but it still offends me and I have a right to say so. It's one of those slurs that people feel free to throw around although you'd never catch them using the "n" word or any other term that insults an entire class of people. "Insane" as used in the title was not being used in a way to insult the mentally disabled so it did not offend me.
Not that I should have to say this but I will, I am not, have not been, and will never be an Obama supporter. I campaigned and raised money for McCain in '08 and it goes without saying that I cast my vote for him (and the mother of another disabled child) that year.
~No one was referring to your child, or anyone else's
Submitted by Wrathful Brunette on Thu, 04/12/2012 - 11:15am.
and insults are *meant* to belittle people. It's the point.
Trying to tell other people how to behave so they won't offend you in your personal circumstances that they know nothing of, is simply not going to work.
Sorry. All the best.
I get the point of insults - but it's more of a slur.
Submitted by Ms. Independent on Thu, 04/12/2012 - 11:26am.
And as I said, people do have a right to use that word, but they should know that it really turns some people's stomachs to the point where they block out everything else that is said. I understand that no one was trying to insult me personally and since people use it so casually in conversation, I get that some people don't even understand that it's offensive. But if we are ever going to change people's opinions, we have to remember that people are watching us. The left love to say that the GOP want to throw the elderly and the disabled off a cliff. I know that's not true, but if a leftist hears someone using a word like that it helps reinforce that misconception.
~Sorry, but it won't work
Submitted by Wrathful Brunette on Thu, 04/12/2012 - 11:59am.
The Left will lie no matter what, and the simple fact is that the Left is the demographic that overwhelmingly aborts babies suspected to have Down's Syndrome, and the demographic that supports assisted suicide and granny just "taking a pill" instead of having the operation. The Left actually KILLS the disabled and elderly, the Right doesn't condone the killing, and certainly doesn't want it done with their taxpayer dollars.
Refraining from ever using the word 'retard' won't change any of that.
I didn't realize it was all
Submitted by ThisnThat on Thu, 04/12/2012 - 12:19pm.
I didn't realize it was all about you. Or all about muslims when I say Merry Christmas. Or all about queers when I support marriage (not the queer's bastardized term). Or non-Catholics when I say St Patrick's day. Frankly, I don't care about your personal feelings. No one was talking about you or your child -- you're just too stupid to know that, I guess.
There! Now you have something to be offended about. Feel better?
__________
“Didn't win the Medal of Honor? Didn't even serve? Then lie about it. We'll support you." — 9th Circuit Court
Good morning Ms Independent
Submitted by cocodrie on Thu, 04/12/2012 - 12:30pm.
My grandson is Autistic and I do not find the term offensive or insulting to him or me.
Websters defines retard as "a stupid or foolish person". If anyone directs the word to your child then be offended. When directed at a stupid or foolish person it fits and it fits Mika like a glove.
Jesus Loves You so much He died for you
Xenophobic?
Submitted by sentry_99 on Thu, 04/12/2012 - 10:19am.
Are you implying that using the word "retard" insults foreigners? If so, are you saying all foreigners are mentally disabled?
Xenophobia is defined as:
Submitted by Ms. Independent on Thu, 04/12/2012 - 11:08am.
a fear or hatred of foreigners or STRANGERS or what is STRANGE or foreign. The view of the right is that they are homogeneous and they have a hatred of anyone who isn't white male. It isn't an accurate view IMO but using slurs doesn't help dispell that belief.
I see...??
Submitted by sentry_99 on Thu, 04/12/2012 - 11:17am.
You think strangers are mentally disabled also. Got it...thanks.
I'm beginning to think
Submitted by Ms. Independent on Thu, 04/12/2012 - 11:36am.
that you are.
Very Nice
Submitted by sentry_99 on Thu, 04/12/2012 - 11:42am.
I'm sure you're disabled child would be so proud of you for attempting to insult someone by calling them mentally disabled. Maybe now you'll get off that high horse and spare us your retarded opinion on xenophobia.
Independent, huh?
Submitted by Blonde on Thu, 04/12/2012 - 10:21am.
More like a democrat potted plant.
Here's what I think of your opinion.
Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)
Took long enough...
Submitted by c5then on Thu, 04/12/2012 - 8:26am.
Took him 3 years to see that Obama is "insanely political".
Wonder how much longer it will take before he realizes that everything that has been done, advocated for and talked about by Obama is all gimickry?
Madison and Jefferson and Franklin built a Republic - Roberts killed it!
UH OH
Submitted by Jersey Girl on Thu, 04/12/2012 - 8:31am.
Methinks this guy hasn't learned that the truth is not permitted by anyone speaking for PoliticO.
I dropped cable some time ago
Submitted by bobtheman on Thu, 04/12/2012 - 8:45am.
I dropped cable some time ago so thankfully I don't have to pay to watch these creeps anymore, but I gotta say, it was nice to hear from the left what everybody else knows.
Methinks that some on the left see BOs political calculation as a looming failure and are going to jump ship like rats when the shite hits the fan.
Oh, and Bubbles?! ... thanks for cutting off the clip just when she started to open her pie hole.
This is going to bite~
Submitted by GG_NB on Thu, 04/12/2012 - 8:55am.
This morning I read this article (by Rove) on Obama's campaign "game plan," and it made me sick.
It's already begun -- and a tactic previously used by O -- but I think it's going to become so intense and so low that I'm not sure how Rommey is going to keep combating it. And without an honest media to call O out on it (aside from FOX), this is going to be a very nasty season of O trying to scare/hypnotize a segment of the American population into believing lie after lie after lie:
http://www.rove.com/articles/376
"If not us, who? If not now, when?"
~Ronald Reagan
Another Shot Exist.
Submitted by Ogundipe S.O. on Thu, 04/12/2012 - 9:34am.
Dana Milbank penned something similar over at The Washington Post. Due to the hot weather here in Lagos that makes everyone sweat to the teeth, I tried several times to wipe out my face just to be sure it's Mr. Milbank but I never saw anything au contraire. The link is from RCP.
Of Course There's No Gimmickry
Submitted by Conservator on Thu, 04/12/2012 - 11:28am.
Mika is right and it should be called the Reagan Rule instead of the Buffett Rule. As Rush stated yesterday, "Warren Buffett owes $1 billion in back taxes. He is fighting it. He doesn't think he should pay it, but publicly he's out there saying, 'I'm not paying enough in taxes'." - Reagan at least paid his taxes and I'm certain that's was the distinction Mika was trying to make. Her partisan worship of Obama is what occurs when a so-called news network allows their hosts to be shills at a White Forum.
In other news,
Submitted by Nemesisesq on Thu, 04/12/2012 - 12:17pm.
heating fuel shipments to hell have spiked. I don't understand how Mika can protest against facts so smoothly.