Friday snapshots
On various political fronts, some quick riffs
Friday snapshots
Dick Polman, Inquirer National Political Columnist
In brief, at week's end...
The winner of this week's Homer Simpson Award is our old friend Karl Rove, the architect of George W. Bush's stellar career. In a guest appearance the other morning on ABC, Rove insisted that President Obama should march in lockstep with his Afghanistan commander, General Stanley McChrystal, and promptly approve McChrystal's plea for 40,000 new troops - because, after all, the commander in the field knows best. But host Diane Sawyer pointed out that top military people have complained that the Afghanistan troop hike is needed now precisely because the Bush administration under-resourced the war. Rove didn't like that at all. His response: "I don’t believe that at the time, the military was saying we need significantly more (troops). If there had been that cry, I suspect the previous administration would have been very responsive to it...The United States had what, at the time, the military felt was an appropriate level of resources."
Wow. Even now, the Bush team can't stop lying.
Two months ago, McChrystal's predecessor, Gen. David McKiernan, complained to The Washington Post that he could not get what he needed from the Bush team, with respect to troop levels, because the White House was so focused on Iraq. McKiernan said, "There was a saying when I got (to Afghanistan): 'If you’re in Iraq and you need something, you ask for it. If you’re in Afghanistan and you need it, you figure out how to do without it.'" He then recounted that, during the late summer of 2008, he had asked Bush for 30,000 more troops - because, after all, the commander in the field knows best...but his request was refused.
Homer's message to Rove: "D'Oh!"
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Maybe we should have a moratorium on all polls that seek to measure public sentiment on health care reform, given the new evidence which suggests that a lot people have no idea what's going on. The nonpartisan Pew Research Center this week released some stats showing an alarmingly high rate of public cluelessness. For instance, only 56 percent of Americans know that the "public option" is part of the health reform debate - and 44 percent don't even know what the term refers to. Meanwhile, only 18 percent know that the Senate Finance Committee chairman is Max Baucus; another seven percent think that the chairman is John McCain - a particularly noteworthy finding, not because McCain has rarely shown the slightest interest in the health care issue, but because McCain is a Republican and therefore ineligible to run any committee in a Democratic chamber. And even though most Americans seem to have strong opinions about the health care issues put to them by pollsters, 66 percent nevertheless say that the reform effort is "hard to understand." So the next time you hear the reformers or the naysayers claim to be speaking for "the American people," take it with a chunk of rock salt.
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My favorite Fox News factoid of the week: During a report about the Dow clearing 10,000, host Neil Cavuto suggested that this event could be correctly viewed as evidence of a "Bush recovery." (Subliminal message: When the market goes down, blame Obama; when it goes up, credit Bush.) As Cavuto spoke, the on-screen messageboard flashed the word to all credulous couch-potatoes: "Is This The 'Bush Recovery?'" I'll pose a different question: Is it any mystery why the Obama team refuses to play ball with Fox?
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Political history junkies got a treat this week. A new book apparently solves the mystery of "Debategate," the 1980 theft of President Jimmy Carter's debate preparation materials, and the secret delivery of those materials to Carter's challenger, Ronald Reagan, on the autumn eve of their only debate. According to Craig Shirley, author of Rendezvous With Destiny: Ronald Reagan and The Campaign That Changed America, the culprit was a disgruntled Carter aide named Paul Corbin. Corbin, a Kennedy family loyalist, was ticked off that Carter had beaten Kennedy for the Democratic nomination, and sought to screw Carter in return. So he slipped the Carter debate plan to the Reagan people. Which was a tad ironic, because Corbin had formerly been a card-carrying communist, yet the anti-communist Reagan hardliners had no problems conspiring with him. But, as the saying goes, politics makes strange bedfellows. Carter reportedly still blames his '80 defeat on the theft of his debate prep materials ("I don't think there's any doubt that it made some difference"), but he's deluding himself. He was the sole Democratic incumbent to lose a re-election race during the 20th century not because Reagan had his debate book, but because he was stymied by the Iranian hostage crisis, double-digit inflation, and a disgruntled liberal base. Corbin was a symptom of his failures, not the cause.
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And finally, following up on Rush Limbaugh, his NFL dreams are apparently toast. League officials and potential Rams investors decided late this week that he would merely foul the air. Sure enough, shortly before he was cut loose, he went on the air and spewed verbiage eerily similar in tone to what I satirized here a few days ago: "This is not about the NFL, it's not about the St. Louis Rams, it's not about me, this is about the ongoing effort by the left in this country, wherever you find them, in the media, the Democrat Party, or wherever, to destroy conservatism, to prevent the mainstreaming of anyone who is prominent as a conservative. Therefore, this is about the future of the United States of America and what kind of country we're going to have."
An "ongoing effort by the left"? On the contrary, he got the boot because he was deemed to be bad for business by the business-minded operatives of the National Football League (which, after all, has never been a haven for "the left"). One of Rush's erstwhile investment partners said this week that Rush had to go, because it was "clear that his involvement in our group has become a complication and a distraction." It's simple, really: Rush, and his rhetorical track record, was high risk - whereas good businessmen seek to minimize risk. That's free enterprise and the American way. Rush, of all people, should have goosebumps about that.
Nigelthemastiff- I want respectfull debate but when you post quotes from Saxby Chambliss as facts but when I challenged you on it you admitted it was second hand through a friend then you lose credibility. I just wont tolerate anymore from liberals. I just won't. It 's unfounded and unfair and you know that.- SMike, it wasn't unfounded. I heard the report from two different people at two different times, each unsolicited. Each was at the event where Chambliss said this. If Rangel were a Republican, would you say everyone was libeling him, too? I don't care what party Chambliss is part of. What he said is wrong. And he did say it. People heard him. Just because I wasn't there doesn't mean he didn't say it. And from you, well, you probably would have told me I was lying if I reported it myself. You just haven't been acting very logically lately. Maybe you haven't noticed, but I have often criticized Democrats. If someone does something wrong, I really don't care what side he's on. Wrong is wrong. The fact that you seem unable to admit any wrong from conservatives just says something.— NigeltheMastiff
- Phrossty- Well what can I tell you? Crack open another phrossty one and drink about it for a while. Its a blog. It's just opinion. But you have to admit that your side whined and kicked and screamed all during Bush's presidency. You even went so far as to blame a historical hurricane on the man. And with the complicit media it all worked out pretty good for your side. So it's just a dose of your own medicine.
- Nigel- Peace/truce OK. In my opinion it was 2nd hand news.
- Who wants to bet against me that in 10 years when Glenn Beck accumulates all the millions he's now starting to collect from his paranoid fans, that he doesn't break down sobbing for at least a week when he gets shot down for some team he wants to buy?— yobill626
- VAST RIGHT WING CONSPIRACY!!! Turns out Google is in bed with Al Gore and the dems after all. I was wondering about this cockimany google map of the effects of global warming, now I know why. Al Gore is guiding google on search results by his own words. Just googled Barack Obama. First thing listed was Organizing for America. The whole page was about BO and his life story with nary a negative listing. Googled George W Bush. First page has a picture of him carrying a big book called Presidency For Dummies. Couple listings down theres Newsweek talking about Life after Bush. Beck haters cant see past the end of their own noses. http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2009/10/15/al-gore-advised-google-about-its-search-quality— Paul in Surprise, AZ
- Dick was behind on his DNC quota for the month. I guess he needed his check.— tr88
- Liberal- About Ronald Reagan. you said " But if you look at it from a long perspective, it is becoming clearer every day what a disaster his tenure was for this country."..... Honestly I have no idea how you can substantiate these remarks about Reagan's presidency. The man restored America to prominence, lowered taxes which help create one of the greatest economic expansions in the last century, and freed Eastern Europe from the grasp of tyranny. He was one of the most transformational figures of our lifetime. Even Barack Obama's admits that.
- Here is Rush's op-ed piece. There will probably be a libel lawsuit over this. I cannot understand why liberals are just making things up. The media printed quotes about Limbaugh that they could not substantiate. There is a pattern here in the media. We saw a similar atrocity committed by CBS's Dan Rather. There is a huge problem in journalism where ideology is trumping responsibility to get the story right. Anyway, here is the link.....................http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704322004574477021697942920.html
- Phrossty- you said "He's got a big audience. However, his appeal is only to folks who already agree with his ideology. My understanding is the nation as a whole does not.".... Actually polling data shows that we are a conservative nation. That's why Obama had to run as a tax cutting , deficit hawk on a platform advocating strong national defense. He could not win tumpeting his liberal credentials and San Franciso values.
- stupid does burn...here is what Mercury Morris, African-American and former star running back for super bowl champion Miami Dolphins when asked by Rick Sanchez of CNN (who fled the scene of a hit and run where the victim died and was driving drunk, but that is another story).."Well, you know what, Rick? The answer to that is- is that, when you look at what he said and how he said it, it actually makes some relevant sense. He’s just saying it in a smart way. Let me say it to you in an educated way...So a whole generation of young people have grown up under the stigma of the Crips and the Bloods, and these some- some of these people are playing in the NFL now. So you can’t take away from that gene pool that they have to choose from, because it’s what society has to offer them..." Now, go ahead and call Mercury Morris racist.— tom - wilmington, de
- liberal....I am afraid there is an emptier suit in the White House now. At least when Reagan proposed something he sent the plan to Congress. Can anyone to this day point to the Obama health care plan? Was there an Obama stimulus plan? Is there an Obama cap and trade plan? No. This president has no plans, he is letting Congress drive the bus. The one decision he has to make, on Afghanistan, he seems unable to make...his "review" has gone on for at least a month and there is no timetable for it ending.— tom - wilmington, de
- Why does the Inquirer call Polman's commentary "American Debate?" It should be called "Democrat Rant." Every week it's simply an editorial leaning clearly one way –- there's no debate at all.— mmds
- liberal...please, extrapolate on your point that Reagan was so bad for this country. I would love to read your view.— tom - wilmington, de
- About Limbaugh and his audience, Pew Research did a study and found that roughly one third of his audience identify themselves as liberal. Hardly all right wing ideologues.— tom - wilmington, de
Cited by the Columbia Journalism Review as one of the nation's top political reporters, and lauded by the ABC News political website as "one of the finest political journalists of his generation," Dick Polman is a national political columnist at the Philadelphia Inquirer. He is on the full-time faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, as "writer in residence." Dick has been a frequent guest on C-Span, MSNBC, CNN, NPR and the BBC. He covered the 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004 presidential campaigns.
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