CBS Weatherman Dave Price Once Again Enthusiastic Over Troop Morale In Iraq

As reported last week, Dave Price, the weatherman on CBS’s "The Early Show" went to Iraq along with country music artist Charlie Daniels to entertain American troops. This morning, Price gave the first part of a two part series detailing his travels and interaction with the troops.

Once again, Price reassured viewers that troop morale is high, and showed some comments from men and women in uniform, for instance Price made the following statements:

"I went to cheer up the soldiers, but in most cases, they didn't need it."

"Of course morale was sky high during the shows, but what surprised me was what I heard after the music and the laughter faded."

This comment was followed by a clip from an unnamed soldier reaffirming troop morale:

"I'm the senior enlisted here. And, not one time since I've been here have I had one individual come to me and say, I don't want to be here. Not one time. What can you do to get me out of here? I haven't heard that one time. And that's pretty nice."

As for those who believe the war is unwinnable, Price offered the words of a soldier identified as Staff Sergeant Ellis to put things into perspective:

"Of course, we see bad stuff, you know. We're hit with IEDs. You know, we're shot at, things of that nature. But for the most part, the country is not bad. I'm sure, that if you were to equate it to how we were when we were trying to stand up as a country, you know there's still a little bit of chaos, little bit of confusion, a lot of uncertainty. I think that's the, the way it is here in Iraq."

Finally, Price paid his respect and admiration for the strength and determination of the troops by relaying how good they made him feel:

"It was an amazing experience. I went to Iraq looking to lift spirits, but in the end, it was the soldiers who had done that for me."

Although viewers were treated to this uplifting story by Dave Price, the focus of this morning’s program was once again on oil prices and how they have increased. In fact, the first three stories all dealt with this subject.

CBS News Senior White House Correspondent Bill Plante, in referring to the fact that some people want the government to intervene, noted :

The political pressure is rising about as fast as the price of gas.

Both Bill Plante and CBS Congressional Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson noted how Democrats are planning to use this as an issue in the November elections. For instance, take this statement by Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Attkisson’s comments about it:

Dick Durbin: "If the President and the Republican leadership in Congress want to take this election seriously, they'd better take gasoline prices seriously. It's an indication of failure on their part to plan ahead. Failure to have an energy policy to protect America from these terrible gasoline prices."

Sharyl Attkisson: "That's an example of how Democrats will try to make this an election issue. The question being, of course, if gas prices stay high, will voters blame the party in power in the November elections?

With all due respect to Senator Durbin, it’s been the Democrats over the years who were blocking energy legislation. President Bush has pushed Congress on the issue ever since he took office, yet it took until 2005, after Republicans increased their seats in the Senate to 55 in the 2004 elections, for anything to pass. Yet, Durbin's friends in the media never seem to want to point that out.