As NewsBusters has been reporting for weeks, much of the Obama-loving media have been shamelessly carrying water for the White House's claim that Mitt Romney's vast business experience is not a qualification for president.
When Candy Crowley tried this on CNN's State of the Union Sunday, her guest Rudy Giuliani replied, "That's really jerky" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
RUDY GIULIANI: I mean, the simple fact is that Mitt Romney has been far more successful in the things that he's done than Barack Obama. I mean, going way back, this is a man who ran a significant business, made it into a tremendous success which used to be -- used to count for a lot in America. He created dozens of businesses. I work with him when he took the Olympics out of chaos. Remember, we had to do the Olympics in Utah just a few months after September 11th. They were going to cancel the Olympics.
CANDY CROWLEY, HOST: Right.
GIULIANI: And Mitt Romney pulled it off and it was a great success. This is a man, unlike President Obama, who had virtually no success before, just community organizer, state senate, never really had a payroll to meet or any responsibilities.
CROWLEY: Well, I'm not sure people would say that wasn't success, but he certainly was a community organizer, but now he's had four years of experience as president which isn't nothing at this point and one of their arguments is that that business experience that you're talking about that Mitt Romney is talking about doesn't really qualify him -- it's not a qualification to be president because it's a wholly different point of view. And here's something...
GIULIANI: But Candy...
CROWLEY: Let me just -- hang on, I'm going to give you a chance to talk. I want to play something Joe Biden said.
GIULIANI: That's really jerky.
It is really jerky. If experience running a decent sized corporation isn't qualification to be president, what is?
But I'm getting ahead of myself and Giuliani:
CROWLEY: Let me play something Joe Biden said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Your job as president is to promote the common good. That doesn't mean the private equity guys are bad guys, they're not. But that no more qualifies you to be president than being a plumber.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CROWLEY: It's your turn.
When Ronald Reagan was running for re-election in '84, they spent a little time criticizing Mondale, but most of it was Morning in America, how he had turned around the country, the great successes he had because he had a record to run on. President Obama is running against -- and we have found what a president who has no experience is going to give us.
He's going to give us tremendous failure, the largest debt we've ever had, the highest levels of sustained long-term unemployment since the depression. I mean, our economy is a disaster under Obama. He vaguely knows what he's doing with regard to our economy.
CROWLEY: But the question here really is about Mitt Romney's credentials and he's put Bain as one of them out there. And this is an outfit that made great money, was very successful, but its business wasn't creating jobs, as you know. Its business was creating wealth for people which is a great thing in America, it's what we do, but their argument is that doesn't qualify you to be president.
Well then what does qualify one to be president? Giuliani had the answer:
GIULIANI: Well, what does qualify you to be president? Does being a community activist for a Saul Alinsky group, and then a member of a state legislature for a few years and kind arriving in the senate and running for president on day one, does that qualify you to be president?
Or does somebody who has run the Olympics, governor -- let me finish, run the Olympics, governor of one of our largest states, and run one of our most successful businesses in the country. Does that qualify you to be president of the United States?
I mean, I don't think you can argue -- qualifications get decided by the voters. I would take Romney's background for an America that has to turn around its economy way over Obama's background which has basically been a theoretical kind of background. Never had any kind of responsibilities. Never ran a military unit.
CROWLEY: Mr. Mayor...
GIULIANI: Never ran a business.
When you think about it, this whole discussion the media are currently having about Romney's qualifications for president is hysterical.
Throughout American history, being governor was considered the ideal stepping stone to the White House. Most of our nation's presidents were governors first.
Wouldn't a vast amount of business experience on top of running Massachusetts be ample qualifications for the job, especially as the man currently in the White House had no gubernatorial or business credits on his resume?
Apparently not if you're a Republican.
Which raises the question: Are there any qualifications the media will accept for president if the candidate has an R next to his or her name?
