CNN's Don Lemon committed heresy on Sunday night.
In his "No Talking Points" segment on CNN Newsroom, he had the unmitigated audacity to challenge Barack Obama while agreeing with former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin (video follows with transcript and commentary):
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Not a good week for President Obama. Roll the headlines.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: Overshadowed by a prostitution scandal involving members of the Secret Service.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: Yet another apology for yet another instance of U.S. troops behaving badly in Afghanistan.
DIANE SAWYER, ABC NEW HOST: Those government officials who attend that conference in Las Vegas and spent tax payer money on mind readers and clowns?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: The agency that protects him under fire. The agency representing the country on the battlefield under fire. The agency that oversees government agencies under fire.
The Secret Service, the GSA, the armed forces. While the president doesn't directly run these organizations, he is the president and as much as Democrats don't want to hear it, people like Sarah Palin have a point.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
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LEMON: At the head of these agencies. He's also the head of the economy. He's in charge of it, yet almost four years later his entire administration is running, still blaming a bad economy on George W. Bush.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Take a look at what happened in Ohio between 2000 and 2008. Instead of faster job growth, we had the slowest job growth in half a century.
TIMOTHY GEITHNER, TREASURY SECRETARY: The president inherited, again, as you know, the worst financial crisis since the great depression. The worst crisis since the great depression when he came in office. You know, this was a financial crisis caused by a shock larger than what caused the great depression.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Too many people have been stripped of their dignity as a consequence of this god-awful recession we've inherited.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: It is true that they inherited the worst economy since the great depression. The research shows it. It does. It shows it. But it's the same talking points he ran on last time. And, again, you know, maybe the GSA, the Secret Service and bad soldiers aren't all your fault. Even conservative Stalwart George Will agrees.
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GEORGE WILL, CONSERVATIVE COMMENTATOR: It's unfair to blame Barack Obama for the GSA, or any of this thing because although people think he control the executive branch, no one controls the executive branch. That's part of the problem with bog government.
(END VIDEO CLIP0
LEMON: So, everyone understands it's an election year and you need something to hang your hat on. It's something to hang your hat on. But no one likes a broken record. And at some point you're going to have to take responsibility for the things that happened on your watch, regardless of what went down or up before you took office. And stop pointing fingers backwards. That's tonight's "No Talking Points."
As Michelle Malkin's new website Twitchy reported Tuesday, Lemon got trashed by his viewers on Twitter as a result of this commentary.
One Tweep actually wrote, "If you think the Right will make you their Pet Gay, they won't. Obama is standing up 4 U & don't forget who you are."
As I reported a week ago after appearing on Lemon's program, I too experienced the wrath of CNN's liberal viewers disgusted by the hint of balance on that network.
I asked Lemon at the time via Twitter why he thought his followers go apoplectic at the sight of a conservative. He never responded.
Maybe with how he's been treated by these folks since Sunday's comments he should take my question more seriously.
(H/T Right Scoop)
