Curry Concerned About GOP 'Swiftboating'; Hillary: I'm Like Ginger Rogers

April 22nd, 2008 8:24 AM

When's the last time you heard the MSM talk about a Republican being hit by the "Democrat attack machine"? Scratch that. Have you ever heard the MSM talk about a Republican being hit by the "Democrat attack machine"? Neither have I. But fretting about impending Republican "swiftboating" of the Dem presidential candidate is an MSM staple, and we saw a good example of it this morning, right down to an image of John Kerry in uniform.

Oh, and Hillary Clinton sees herself as a modern-day Ginger Rogers.

Ann Curry had a chance to interview both Dem candidates recently, and Today ran an extended clip during this morning's first half-hour, the two interviews being artfully edited into a back-and-forth. Overall, I'd say Curry gave Hillary the tougher time, but be that as it may, let's focus on two snippets. First, Curry fretting to Obama about those mean Republicans. Check out the screencap. Kerry in uniform, decorations on display. Beneath, the graphic ominously asks: "Can Obama Handle Republican Attacks?" Again I ask: have you ever, EVER, seen the mirror-image graphic in the MSM?

View video here.

ANN CURRY: In the last presidential election, John Kerry, a decorated military veteran, was swiftboated as being unpatriotic. Why do you dismiss the kinds of questions that are going to be the bread-and-butter of the Republican campaign if you become the nominee?

Obama replied that he was "making a bet that the American people are sick and tired of that kind of politics."

Later, Hillary played the woe-is-woman-me card with a vengeance, even fox-trotting out [sans attribution] an old line about Ginger Rogers.

CURRY: Do you feel the playing field has been not level because you are a woman?

HILLARY CLINTON: I don't know if I'd call it unlevel. I just think that it's never been done before. Nobody knows quite how to cover a woman running for president. We've never had someone get this close. And it is like Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire: you know, I have to do everything Fred does, only backwards and in high heels. The most pervasive form of discrimination in the world, no matter what the ethnicity, the race, the religion of the people who live in any society, is discrimination against women.

But Hillary doesn't know if she'd call the playing field unlevel. Right.