Donaldson Advises Dems Hype 'Deep Recession'; Likens Obama to a 'Kewpie Doll'

January 24th, 2008 10:33 AM

It's quite a sight to behold when media "has-beens" start drinking the doom and gloom Kool-Aid offered up in the media.

Sam Donaldson, who covered the Reagan White House for ABC and who now is a contributor to the network's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," last night told a gathering in Georgetown that the U.S. economy is going "in the dumper" and criticized the Democratic presidential candidates for not capitalizing on it.

Donaldson also finally explained why he yelled at Ronald Reagan all those years when he was the White House correspondent [Audio] and compared Sen. Obama to a "kewpie doll" in his reticence at hitting back at Sen. Clinton. [Audio]

Donaldson offered his analysis of the January 21 Democratic debate held in Myrtle Beach, S.C. He told the audience he thought the focus should be on the economy - which he thought would have to be pulled out of a "deep recession."

[Click Here For Audio]

"[T]hey all decided that John McCain is going to be the Republican nominee and that the issue would be national security and they each tried to tell us which one was best," Donaldson said. "And I thought to myself, ‘Wait a second, you seem to understand the issue may very well be deep recession - who's going to pull us out economically - and yet at the end, you've seem to have forgotten.'"

Donaldson spoke at Nathan's in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., January 23.

Donaldson was asked how low he thought the Clintons would go politically. "They say the Clintons have no bottom, in terms of how low they'll go," said the host, Carol Joynt. "Do you believe that?"

"Well, I mean - murder? I mean, what are you talking about, ‘no bottom'?" Donaldson said, but didn't suggest they would go that low. He said, "They're fighting very hard."

And speaking of fighting, he said he thought Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama should have been hitting back all along rather than "standing there like a kewpie doll."

[Click Here For Audio]

"[S]enator Obama started fighting in that debate I was referred to the other night. It's a little late, but maybe not too late," Donaldson said. "He's got to hit back. You can't just be standing there like a kewpie doll and smile."