Juan Williams Says Daily Kos in Political Center

Photo of Noel Sheppard.

Sometimes when you see NPR's Juan Williams on Fox News, you are left scratching your head wondering what planet he lives on, and what the color of the sky is there.

Such questions must certainly have been raised in the minds of right-thinking "Fox News Sunday" viewers this morning when Williams suggested that the liberal blog Daily Kos "is now center."

I kid you not.

What precipitated this extraordinary lapse of reason on Williams' part was a rather accurate observation made by the Weekly Standard's Bill Kristol concerning Democrat presidential candidates attending the upcoming YearlyKos convention (video available here):

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Every Democratic presidential nominee is going to the Daily Kos convention. That's the left-wing blogger who was not respectable three or four years ago. The Howard Dean kind of sponsor. Now the whole party is going to pay court to him and to left wing blogs. Not a single one is going to the Democratic Leadership Council meeting in a couple of weeks. That's the organization that Bill Clinton was head of in the early '90s - that was supposed to be the new, more moderate Democratic Party. The Democratic Party has gone left and it will hurt them in 2008.

Makes sense, right? After all, the DLC was indeed crucial for Clinton's success in the '90s. Yet, the past two Democrat presidential candidates have shied away from this group, and its tenets, moving further to the left, and not winning their respective elections.

With this in mind, it seems quite reasonable to suggest that Democrat presidential candidates who follow Al Gore and John Kerry's leftist playbook rather than the successful, though disingenuous, moderate campaign of Bill Clinton will have a hard time winning in the general election.

Not so surprisingly, Williams saw things differently:

What you described as left is now center. The majority of the American people, 70 percent, want us out of Iraq. In fact, if you asked Iraqis, 60 some percent of Iraqis say we're doing more harm than good in Iraq. There's a center here and I think what you're saying is they're playing somehow to the left.

Even if the only issue on voters' minds was Iraq, Williams' point would be way off base.

Unfortunately, a recent CBS News/New York Times poll indicated that this is just one of the issues voters believe will be a priority in the upcoming elections (from Polling Report):

"In deciding who you would like to see elected president next year, which ONE of the following issues will be most important to you: [see below], or something else?" N=1,398 registered voters.

%

The war in Iraq 20

Terrorism and national security 17

The economy and jobs 17

Health care 16

Immigration 10

Education 8

The environment and global warming 7

Something else 5

Add it all up, and 80 percent of those polled said something other than the war in Iraq would be their top priority in November 2008. As such, suggesting that this is the only issue on the minds of Americans is rather absurd.

Moreover, though polls indicate that most people do want some form of troop withdrawal from Iraq, this same poll showed that only 34 percent of Americans want all troops removed immediately. By contrast, 59 percent either support just a decrease in troops, the status quo, or an increase.

In fact, CBSNews.com's article on this poll stated that "Sixty-one percent of Americans surveyed think the war should be funded only if there's a timetable for withdrawal...while 8 percent think all funding for the war should be blocked, no matter what."

The Kossacks are part of that 8 percent who want funding blocked now no matter what.

Therefore, even on this one issue, it is specious of Williams to suggest that the folks at Daily Kos are either in the center or representative of the majority view.

Nice try, Juan.

—Noel Sheppard is the Associate Editor of NewsBusters.


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I have to believe that Juan

I have to believe that Juan maybe be rethinking what he said in haste. Markos is the Abbie Hoffman of this generation. The off-the-rail people who post and comment on this site truly represent the worst of our society and even some of the worst of the Democrat party.

 

I thought Markos was the

I thought Markos was the Abbie Normal of his generation.

what hump?  

what hump?  

They support impeachment.

They support impeachment. Sheehan will be campaigning against Pelosi, one of her primary issues being impeachment. KOS wants the same. Pelosi will not support it. Where will Juan's political center focus in the upcoming months?

JDW

News media: Scoreboard for terrorists

 

Juan is right about Kos being in the middle....

Especially when you consider on the one extreme the Dem party is made of the the lunatic socialist Left (Lee, Sanders, McDermott et al) and the other consists of the merely delusional Left (Schumer, Durbin, Frank et al).

How people like the Senators Nelson, Bayh, Schuler and other "moderate" Dems can stand being in that nuthouse beats the heck out of me.

Had the Republican Party

Had the Republican Party learned anything from the losses of 2006, the Daily Kos would not be center.

Instead of trying to rebuild their base, they continue to let them down. Oh how we need a housecleaning in the Republican Party.

Of course it is. Whatever

What you described as left is now center.

Of course it is. Whatever liberals mostly agree on nowadays, is considered "centrist." That way, anyone who is a conservative is a member of the "extreme right wing." The fact that the Democrats have chosen to pander to the Kos crowd doesn't make that crowd more moderate; it just shows that the Democrats realize their power.

I didn't see the show, but I hope everyone (or at least someone) jumped on him over that remark. As long as we let liberals control the language and define the argument, they will win.

PS  I just saw how NB took my first few words and made it the subject line, and I chuckled, then thought "well that's appropriate" LOL 

The YouTube clip has this

The YouTube clip has this heading:

"Bill Kristol Angry Over YearlyKos Influence"

 Angry? What anger? Bill was calmly and correctly stating fact.

 

Start each day with a smile, then get it over with. - W.C. Fields

Juan Williams is an idiot.

Help Fred defeat everybody.

Hellow Juan Williams!

spin

Juan Williams said: The majority of the American people, 70 percent, want us out of Iraq.

Where did he get this number? I heard this from some other leftist (Reid?) and want to see what this is based on. I don't believe this is factual, I think it is a DNC spin fact.

D

I don't support our liberals or their mission.

Wording is everything

Actually, we all would like to be out of Iraq, but when asked the follow up question, do you think we should get out right now, the majority answer that we should not get out until things are settled and the Iraqis can take care of themselves.

 

Our real problem, then, is not our strength today; it is rather the vital necessity of action today to ensure our strength tomorrow. Dwight Eisenhower

exactly

dagda would not we all like to be out?  and if wishes were horses we all would ride

Supreme Court,  National Security,  Borders,  Fiscal Restraint, my litmus test for President.  

the rub

Then in lies the rub. We would all like to be out, but most of us would not like to be out right now.

Our real problem, then, is not our strength today; it is rather the vital necessity of action today to ensure our strength tomorrow. Dwight Eisenhower

70%

70% want us out AFTER we finish mopping up .

The real question is: how many Americans want the USA to surrender?

and the other 30% would

and the other 30% would have a couple bases like in Germany and Okinawa?

Supreme Court,  National Security,  Borders,  Fiscal Restraint, my litmus test for President.  

airbases in mideast

I always viewed the Iraq war, apart from the chance to establish secular democracy in the heart of islam, as a way to keep our thumb in the prophet's pie.

If we execute the end of the Iraq war as we executed the end of WW2, we will establish bases in Afghanistan and Iraq, thus tactically flanking Iran and Pakistan. Just as the presence of US bases in Germany was a soviet deterrent (and arguably the key geographic factor in the fall of the Berlin Wall), so would a long-term military presence in the mideast be a deterrent to militant islam.

As well, we should not exit without leaving in place our intel network. Having failed to establish live intel on the ground over the past two decades throughout the mideast has proven fatal.

Having failed to establish

Having failed to establish live intel on the ground over the past two decades throughout the mideast has proven fatal.

AMEN, BROTHER.

Though I am hoping that we are not hearing about things going on right now to correct that failing. 

(... perhaps I have said too much.)

imagine centrism 50 years hence...

Imagine, take a second, and imagine what centrist views will consist of in fifty years if the Stalinists continue to drive.

Imagine reduction of taxes to 60% being a right-wing talking point. (it was 69% under Carter)

Imagine rationed transportation accepted as a centrist given, with untapped oil underfoot. (Iranian domestic policy, right now, today)

Imagine abortion being taught as a first-choice alternative in public schools. (horrid thought)

Imagine the abolition of private schools altogether. (communism)

Imagine healthcare becoming a commodity, with no more advancements in medicine to be had. (EU and Canada today)

Imagine Christianity being regulated, while islamic terrorists pops bombs on buses regularly. (the entire middle east)

Think these things could happen HERE in fifty years? You bet they could.

Pragmatic-Man, You get at

Pragmatic-Man,

You get at the one obvious problem of Williams' argument - he seems to think that the popular view is the same as the centrist view.

I'm not sure how well this standpoint can be defended. As you say, if in 50 years we wake up in a socialistic society, does socialism then represent the political center, with other views measured relative to it?

I'd like to see an argument for that.

In truth, I think Mr. Williams was just trying to be clever. The decision to stay in or withdraw from Iraq isn't clearly a left-right argument (meaning, you can make some sound arguments for either stand, from either side of the political spectrum) and he was using that to suggest that Daily Kos isn't far left.

But, as Mr. Sheppard points out, most people have other things on their mind in addition to Iraq. I'd like to see Mr. Williams defend DK as being centrist on these topics.

 

 A shill from NPR calls

 A shill from NPR calls KOS, and his concubine of tin foil hat wearing truthers the "political center". Hardly news, sounds like par for the course to me. By the way anyone wanna wager on how NPR somehow will become exempt from the un- fairness doctrine.

"You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious. "

                   - Ben Kenobi on  Liberals, and the MSM.

Juan is part of the left's

Juan is part of the left's group that is extremely shrewd.  They have mastered the concept of maniulating the masses and the Dems know that.    They have also substantially infiltrated virtually every federal, state and local govenment, plus the media, Hollywood, our educational system, unions, the Internet, charitable "foundations", corporations, the UN, and more.

What we don't see or hear about that is going on must be incredible.

So the Dems know the hand(s) that feed them.  As such, they also know the hand(s) that control them via the money they pour into their candidates and various organizations.

Unless the right gets smart and quick, we and the US are doomed.   And IMO, the right will neither get smart or quick.

Both the left and right whine on blogs and forums.  But the left does something about what they want.  There's the difference.  They get results.   OH, and one more thing:  They have bigger balls (including their women)  than I've ever seen on any right wing organization, or political candidate.

George Carlin once did a

George Carlin once did a bit on euphemisms and how they're designed to delude people into thinking that renaming a condition will substantively change that condition (shell shock became post traumatic stress disorder, toilet paper became bathroom tissue, handicapped became differently-abled, etc.).

I'm sure this isn't an original idea, but I see this constantly with libs like Juan Williams.  Thus you get the accurate term "liberals" repackaged as the dishonest, but more acceptable "progressives" (not so much a euphemism as an oxymoron).  And you get idiotic assertions that Daily Kos represents "centrist" thinking.  As a lib, all you have to do is repeat the same repackaged lies over and over again, and you'll start to believe them.

It's always amusing to see Juan Williams try to sneak one of his obvious BS platitudes into an argument.  He gets that phony smile on his face as if to say "I managed to sucker punch my opponent in the back of the head while the ref wasn't looking...if I grin long enough, I'll get away with it".  You can tell he doesn't even believe what he's saying.  What a dishonest creep! 

Juan Williams and reason are not on friendly terms.

An extraordinary lapse of reason is Juan Williams’s normal state.

Kos is Moderate?

 Give Juan a break, he's a Liberal so, if Kos is moderate to him, perhaps he's a lot more left than we think, or he's with Kos and considers himself a moderate. 

I'd love to see the questions in the polls Juan is quoting.  70% may want us out of Iraq in fact, under the right circumstances I'm sure 100% of the people would like us out of Iraq, it's all in the phrasing of the question.

The thing that Democrats have to be careful about is, do 70% of the people want us our of Iraq, on the Democrats terms?  Somehow, if the question were phrased properly, I think the Dems would have it handed to them, on a platter.

Never argue with an idiot.  They'll drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

I heard this today

I heard this today early...

I was amazed that Juan spoke the simple truth of what the dem party has become, even though he says it is the center for the left now...I personally loved it.

(I also loved it when the DLC was mentioned as irrelevant now...heheheee..poor Bill/Hill even Hillary has moved on as he will too, anything to regain the WH)

WE have every chance of winning the WH with this clap-trap being the leftists base...I mean it...

Aggravating, grating maddening as it is....it is a good thing for the right side of life.

Of course, the "Daily Kos"

Of course, the "Daily Kos" is in the center.

The center of a stinking swamp infested with raving trolls, ghouls moonbats and morlocks.

You've seen the spoof. Now see the spoof of the spoof on YouTube: The Clintpranos: Bada Bong

}}}----> Too kind, Bauer

A sebaceous cyst on the arse of Michael Moore.

LYDSEXICS UNTIE!

And that's one massive

And that's one massive blackhole of an arse. Nothing can escape -- including light.

You've seen the spoof. Now see the spoof of the spoof on YouTube: The Clintpranos: Bada Bong