George Will Corrects Donna Brazile: Media Are Not Obama's Problem
George Will and Donna Brazile had a telling exchange on ABC's "This Week" Sunday.
After Will listed all the excuses President Obama makes for the poor economy, Brazile said, "I thought you were going to mention media" leading Will to smartly retort, "They're not his problem" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
GEORGE WILL: It’s hard to look like a leader when you look like Alibi Ike, the character from a Ring Lardner short-story who wasn’t a very good baseball player, but it was never his fault. This president has blamed George W. Bush, the Japanese tsunami, the Euro, Greece, the Arab Spring, Republicans, the Tea Party, and ultimately James Madison for giving us the separation of powers for all his problems. And that does not project leadership.
JAKE TAPPER, HOST: Donna?
DONNA BRAZILE: Well, George is in rare form today. I thought you were going to mention media, George. You forget that one.
WILL: They’re not his problem!
No, they certainly aren't. As NewsBusters noted a few weeks ago:
Since the junior senator from Illinois first threw his hat into the presidential ring in February 2007, America's press have refused to hold his feet to the fire concerning any important issue facing the nation. [...]
If press members had been doing their jobs all year, the President and the Democrat leadership would have been forced to put legitimate, written counter-proposals on the table as they unceremoniously swatted aside those offered by Republicans.
Maybe then a far more encompassing piece of legislation would have been in front of Congress in July with more sweeping short and long-term cuts that would have appeased the credit rating agencies while setting the nation on a more solid fiscal course.
Instead, the media played willing accomplices to Obama and his Party with total disregard for the lack of leadership on display. As a result, we're now a double-A+ nation that appears to be heading towards a double-dip recession.
Suffice to say the Obama-loving Brazile doesn't see it that way.
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Comments
Here in Tampa...
Submitted by zenman1661 on Sun, 08/28/2011 - 4:27pm.
I once heard a liberal guest on a local radio talk show refer to liberal media bias as "laughable" Yet Gallup and Pew polls consistently show that 45-50% of those surveyed believe that the media has a liberal bias.
It's in their blood
Submitted by Ed Gregory on Sun, 08/28/2011 - 5:02pm.
Hey, zen. Orlando here. I worked with 2 old newspaper guys -- both wrote for the St. Pete Times -- and of course they were liberal. I asked them once about whether they see bias in the news and whether it was intentional, and they dismissed both assertions. They're decent guys, and I don't think they were being coy. I really believe it's because they have such such a skewed view of what is truth that they don't even recognize it.
Here in St. Pete we used to have a lot of people
Submitted by nonncom on Mon, 08/29/2011 - 5:13pm.
who read the Evening Independent instead of the Times...most of us kids had paper routes in the afternoon delivering the Independent.....the people who read the Independent considered the Times a communist paper, and when the Independent stopped publishing, they didn't order the Times....
No you are wrong..over 60% in the Pew polls
Submitted by cbeyer on Sun, 08/28/2011 - 7:42pm.
Believe the media tilts to the left. Surprisingly even a portion of the liberals polled believe that!
This is a symptom of their illness.
Submitted by hbnolikeee on Sun, 08/28/2011 - 10:50pm.
They know it, but don't think there's anything wrong with it.
The Media Folks MAY Be His Problem
Submitted by Tugboat Phil on Sun, 08/28/2011 - 2:21pm.
They're so far up his backside, I'm guessing he suffers from constipation.
you kidding?
Submitted by jdlybrand on Sun, 08/28/2011 - 3:34pm.
They can see his tonsils from the back of his throat!
"What a revoltin' development this is!"
Chester Riley
media or stick?
Submitted by Agnostic on Sun, 08/28/2011 - 4:23pm.
You didn't think that was a stick up his kester did you?
George Will called Boy
Submitted by killa37 on Sun, 08/28/2011 - 2:56pm.
George Will called Boy Blamegame 'Alibi Ike'!!! That's pretty good, George!!! I think he's come a long way from inviting the Messiah to his house for a fawning dinner party back during the beginning of Barama's term.
And wha'ts Ms. 'Cracker' Brazile crowing about - she IS part of the media!! Maybe she's noticed that a very small percentage of MSM types actually call Boy Blunder out (once in a very great while, and usualy try and cover for it at the same tme) on his ineptitude, underqualifications, and elevated arrogance.
But..........Obama's still done a pretty good job of getting what he wants, and we are LIVING it these days!!!
PS - I expect to hear this 'problem media' actually trying to corelate the downgrade of Hurricane Irene with Boy Barry's magnificent speeches and command in the FEMA hurricane center.......................of course, they did all they could to distance the nations debt downgrade FROM Barama, by blaming it on the Republicans, TEA partiers, and anyone else who could be used as an alibi.
Under the bus
Submitted by SpaceManSpiff on Sun, 08/28/2011 - 3:02pm.
Obama will throw the media under the bus whenever he needs to. No matter how much they adore and support him, they are just another means to an end. This is a prime example. The Liberal Left is akin to a cult. If the anointed one says the media hasn't shown proper support, or is somehow against him, the loyal cult followers in the media will commence to hunting witches. They'd throw each other under any bus available just to win favor with their cult leader.
The jig is up....
Submitted by NeoKong on Sun, 08/28/2011 - 3:03pm.
This guy has been a loser since day one and everyone knows it .
Six months from now even the sycophants will be jumping ship.
Barack Obama is the political equivalent of the Titanic.
He just plowed right through the ice fields.
It is only a matter of time before she picks some kid up out of the kid out of the throng and says it is her daughter like Billy Zane.
I think I got in some trouble
Submitted by killa37 on Sun, 08/28/2011 - 3:48pm.
I think I got in some trouble here a while ago for saying 'the jig is up'..........but I still think it's a great phrase in many different uses.
Its Only Racist...
Submitted by GeneralAl on Sun, 08/28/2011 - 5:22pm.
Its only a racist slur if you meant it to be. Most of us remember that saying as reference to being exposed for what your are. Like you have been shown to be a fake. The jig is up, buddy!
"Old Soldiers never die, they just fade away"!
I don't think so, killa...
Submitted by Jer on Sun, 08/28/2011 - 5:51pm.
I believe that was one of your frequent "Hey, can I say that? Is that racist?" sarcasm-tinged queries. No one took issue with it.
Jer
The jig is up!!!
Submitted by killa37 on Sun, 08/28/2011 - 9:57pm.
Jer, did you know that the legendary Chester Burnett - aka 'Howlin' Wolf'..........actually WROTE a song called 'First Coon on the Moon'.....back in the early days of our space program??? And da Wolf was as 'ethnic' as they come - from a sharecroppers background, to being in the Army, and then making it bigtime as a powerful blues singer...............he was also quite conservative and self-reliant - which would be a real lesson to a lot of people these days.
→ Jer
Submitted by Cool Arrow on Sun, 08/28/2011 - 10:26pm.
Do you consider it racist that US News referred to Rick Perry as the 900 lb. gorilla?
Just curious.
Cool...
Submitted by Jer on Sun, 08/28/2011 - 10:58pm.
Not at all. I would be shocked if anyone in the entire world would consider that a racist remark. I'm sure you don't.
Jer
Actually the media IS his problem...
Submitted by sherlock1 on Sun, 08/28/2011 - 3:40pm.
Actually the media IS his problem... they have never held him accountable for anything, and praised his every platitudinous speech and ineffectual gesture as if it was the Second Coming. Had they scrutinized and challenged him like they would a Republican President, he would be strong enough by now to have some chance of overcoming the hole he is in and get re-elected.
Of course, had they scrutinized and challenged him when he was running, he would never have been elected President.
The media is worse than useless.
That's an interesting perspective, sherlock1
Submitted by Galvanic on Mon, 08/29/2011 - 9:59am.
At that level, I think you're correct. Obama was largely untested and unchallenged by the media. His press secretary -- Robert Gibbs -- would answer softball questions with talking points and glib cracks, and the media played along for years.
Now Obama is smarting even the slightest of criticisms from the MSM; narcissists usually do. Brazille and others rush to his defense by blaming these criticism for poisoning public opinion of the President.
Yet, as Will points out, in general on the larger lever, the media continues to be sympathetic to Obama, and willing to reiterate WH and DNC talking points to attack the opposition. They will ask a challenging question from time to time, but for the most part, he retains a very friendly MSM as his ally and weapon.
There's an awful lotta nuts
Submitted by Jack Bauer on Sun, 08/28/2011 - 4:18pm.
There's an awful lotta nuts in Brazile
All of the above Mr Obama? --- How about ALL OF THE BELOW, instead.
George might as well
Submitted by Bodini on Sun, 08/28/2011 - 9:47pm.
... give up! That is one cracked nutcase who proves time and again that SHE AIN'T TEACHABLE!
More Brazile Nuts!
Submitted by ironhead4099 on Sun, 08/28/2011 - 6:24pm.
What, the media HAS to be a problem, they're the ones who told us Obiwan is the sencond coming of Christ. Now they should be held accountable! But they won't, Brazile Nuts, Chris Tingle Matthews, Special Ed Schultz and all those others IDIOTS in the Mislead Stream Media are too busy fighting for a place in line behind the POTUS to smell his farts, and kiss his ANNOITED ass daily! We all know none of this is HIS fault, it's those evil Republicans, dastardly Tea Party members, and even mother nature that the real blame falls on, RIGHT? It can't be the fact that The Peter Princilple works, a man will advance in life till he reaches his level of INCOMPTENCE, and then fails. Personally I think the POTUS reached his when he sold ice cream during the summers, when he was a kid!
Feet to the fire
Submitted by SaguaroJack on Sun, 08/28/2011 - 7:28pm.
Yeah, the press didn't hold Obama's feet to the fire. Turned out he had no callouses on those feet because he'd never walked in real shoes. Just velvet slippers. Hands were callousless, too, since they'd only been used for gesturing. Body? Skinny and girlish. No manly strength, no masculine hair or bulges anywhere.
Nothing about Obama warranted favorable notice then, and nothing about him merits favorable comment now. He is an effete snob, a member of the useless class, couldn't change a flat tire or walk five miles to a gas station. The president is a girly man, nails always perfectly manicured, hair trimmed just so, pants creased to impress silly liberal journalists.
Then there's his mental flaccidness. Who would have imagined a politician who can't speak intelligibly without a teleprompter? The media ripped Bush for verbal gaffes, but Obama far exceeds Bush in duh-ness. Bush read over 100 books a year while in office, works of history and information; Obama gets in some pop novels on a vacation. Well, we presume he actually read them. In view of the lies that make up his entire life, there's no justification for believing he reads anything.
Go ahead, Brazile. Hold Obama's feet to the fire. Get the press to do it. Anybody.
.
SaguaroJack---
Submitted by matthewdean on Sun, 08/28/2011 - 9:18pm.
A good post; and your tag line is one of the best, ever.
Something we should remember when anyone wants to "fundamentally transform" anything in regard to the U.S. of A.
MD
She was on CNN in 2008-09
Submitted by Indie Dude on Sun, 08/28/2011 - 7:54pm.
I remember her on CNN posing as an unbiased Analyst. As a viewer watching the 2008 campaign, I did not know who she was back them. Boy, was she one of the biggest left-wing hacks on CNN ever.
The MSM is disingenuous when they present her . . .
Submitted by Galvanic on Mon, 08/29/2011 - 10:02am.
. . . as an unbiased political analyst. She was Gore's hapless campaign manager/strategist in 2000. Pure DNC mouthpiece.
In a way, she may be right,
Submitted by ant on Sun, 08/28/2011 - 8:32pm.
In a way, she may be right, the media are so in the pocket for the messiah, that they have no problem lying for him. People realize this, they see it, and it ends up hurting both the media and obama in the court of public opinion.
Do you agree with George on this?
Submitted by alvin on Sun, 08/28/2011 - 9:57pm.
About Cheney's new book:
WILL: Five hundred and sixty five pages and a simple apology would have been in order in some of them. Which is to say, the great fact of those eight years is we went to war—big war, costly war—under false pretenses
No.
Submitted by NC Cop on Sun, 08/28/2011 - 10:16pm.
No.
Darn right. If the media
Submitted by Slyrr on Sun, 08/28/2011 - 10:51pm.
Darn right. If the media wasn't working 24/7/365 to cover Obama's sorry backside, his 'approval' numbers would probably be at least 15 points lower than they already are.
In 2004, the media bragged that their influence would be worth 20 points or so in getting Kerry elected President. If that's anywhere close to reality, then certainly it's only their influence that is keeping their failed black president from being in the teens.
Media Bias
Submitted by Mobydubido on Mon, 08/29/2011 - 11:11am.
Perhaps it was here, I'm not sure, but shortly after the 2008 presidential election, it was reported that the media's coverage (I assume this is world-wide) of Obama's victory was 32 times that of Bush's in 2004. I mean, really, there aren't that many journalists. They must have been pulling kids off of high school newspapers. And in the end you get just what so many said you would: someone with no practical experience, groomed in the beliefs of the University of Chicago's political science philosophy, who gives a good speech but just really doesn't know what to do.
Excuse me but... duh.
Submitted by vote24 on Mon, 08/29/2011 - 2:43pm.
The media had the biggest hand of all in non-vetting Obama, proclaiming him as meissiah, hiding and actively covering up his communist and criminal connections and cohorts, and generally acting like sycophantic douchewads. Just because 15% of all voters believed their crap, the rest of us saw it all along. Just think what it must be like in liberal media today. Where you already know that 85% of voters, know darned well you are a liar, omitter, and fabricator, yet you must by order or by faith, go on the air, look people in the eye, and defraud you viewers and you nation. All under the guise that the end justifies the means, that those 15% of sheep voters will swing the win for you, and that you know what's best for other free people. Then go home at night, after a few drinks, I would presume, avoid looking in the mirror, then get up and do it all over again, day after day after day. Souless indeed.