by David Safier
Thomas Friedman has a column this morning about the outright lie spread by Republicans and their media scream machine that Obama was planning to spend $200 million a day on his recent trip to India. Friedman gives Anderson Cooper credit for debunking it the day after Michelle Bachmann spread the lie on his show.
Friedman makes two points. One is that it's astonishing to hear people in positions of power spouting such unvarnished lies — not just misstatements and skewing of the truth, but outright lies. The other is that the media is duty bound to rebut the lies loudly and clearly so that people begin to suspect these statements as soon as they come out.
I have a third point. This is what Obama and the Democrats are up against. Blatant, outright liars who have absolutely no scruples about saying black is white, up is down and a statement supposedly made by an unnamed Indian provinicial official and reported in the Indian press is the gospel truth even though they know it flies in the face of reality.
Call Democrats divided and cowardly and unable to come up with effective counters to the Republicans. Fine. But remember, Obama and the rest of the Democrats are still bound by something resembling the truth, and a big, juicy, sexy Republican lie (Death Panels!) is far more attractive to the media than a factual, defensive debunking by the Democrats. It's tough to box using Marquess of Queensberry rules when there are three thugs rabbit punching you and kicking you in the groin.
Friedman's column reminded me of the howl the Republicans sent up when Obama was first going to address school kids. Obama wanted to do exactly what he should have done — use his position to encourage students to study hard and make something of themselves. His speech and the follow up exercises were far less political than a similar talk by Reagan, but Republicans, in a carefully calculated outrage fest, acted as if the President was trying to poison young children's minds. The speech became a minor but much reported scandal. School districts, administrators and teachers were bullied out of showing the short speech in classrooms.
Call Obama a lousy communicator if you want. Blame him and other Dems for not coming up with exactly the right thing to say at exactly the right time to counter the Republicans. But remember, he's facing a coordinated storm of protest for every move he makes and every word he says unlike anything we've ever seen.
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http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/rachel-maddow-teaches-news-101 Once you get past the kookie little game show part, though it certainly DOES prove the point, every statement of fact she so perfectly makes after that, is right on target! My biggest fear, though, is that aside from those of us that actually read and take an active stance in their government, the rest are sheep that blindly follow whatever they hear…even if it is an obvious lie. Easier to believe a lie than to actually do the work involved to see if it is true or not…even in the age of the computer.The media doesn’t begin to do their jobs..they continue to not seem to be intellectually curious, or have the balls to call out anyone that tries to spew the lies that happen daily.Why? Everyone is bought and paid for…including the media.They try to call it “liberal” media, but that hasn’t been around for my lifetime. The name still stuck though..The President better get a ramrod for a backbone, and name names and pound on these obstructionist, hypocritical congresspeople and senators. I really want him to stop always settling for half the loaf…from the beginning, with no negotiation…because the R’s are always going to say no anyway. Can you make a website with all the obstruction and hypocracy and list them out…kind of like the national debt counter?? THAT would be something to see!
Well said, David. Obama’s GOP opponents’ complete lack of concern about making truthful comments by is very disturbing and destructive of our political process. The GOP has become a party which is not reality-based.