Tag Archives: david gergen

NBC’s David Gregory Calls New Obama Stimulus Push ‘Cynical Politics’

Posted on September 10, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Whenever President Barack Obama defends what his presidency to date, specifically on economic issues, he’ll speak of inheriting a bad economy from the previous administration, and then assures listeners of his intention to make the economy his top priority. So why hasn’t he done it? Why have there been other distractions like cap-and-trade, ObamaCare, bailouts, etc. and not a push for a real so-called infrastructure stimulus, like the president proposed publicly earlier this week. On CNBC’s Sept. 10 “Squawk Box,” host Joe Kernen asked NBC “Meet the Press” moderator why the support from the president’s own party isn’t enthusiastic about Obama’s new stimulus proposal . “I am trying to figure out, where is the Democratic leadership?” Kernen said. “Were you not surprised that after the speech and after the proposals, I don’t know of a single person in a leadership position that said, ‘Yes Mr. President, that’s a great idea.’ All I saw was [Colorado Democratic Sen. Michael] Bennet using the s-word, which he isn’t supposed to use and isn’t that surreal? I mean it’s like – the president almost seems like he’s lonely at this point with some of this stuff?” Gregory wanted to know why, if these measures to strengthen the economy were so important, the president earlier. “Look Joe, I think you have to ask why, if the president felt so strongly about additional stimulus money or business tax breaks, he didn’t propose it at a time that it gotten it passed,” Gregory replied. “Because – to your point, Democrats don’t want to vote for more spending, they don’t want to vote for – I mean they may want to vote for tax breaks if it could come together, but Republicans don’t want to hand him that victory.” With this latest move by Obama, which comes almost two months before the midterm election, it appears to his critics to be nothing more than “cynical politics” on the president’s part, according to Gregory. “So you’re right, it is a lonely position,” he continued. “And again, if he felt strongly about these things, why didn’t he do that earlier in the term? I think that is a criticism being leveled at him saying, ‘Look, this is cynical politics on the president’s part.’ He knows they’re not going to get anything passed. This is all part of framing the political message.”

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Tagged 2010 congressional, Barack Obama, david gergen, gergen, president, press

CNN’s Gergen: Obama is ‘Impressive,’ But Press Conference Was ‘Boring’

Posted on September 10, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

CNN’s David Gergen gushed over Barack Obama during CNN’s coverage of the President’s press conference on Friday, but was unimpressed by his performance: ” He impresses everyone with his competence …. The subtlety of his mind I think is very impressive . At the same time, I thought it was … boring .” Minutes later, Roland Martin replied to Gergen by rushing to Obama’s defense: ” He’s not an entertainer .” Anchor John King brought on some of the network’s ” best political team on television,” including Gergen and Martin, 19 minutes into the 12 noon hour, immediately after the President’s briefing concluded. King turned to the senior political analyst first and asked, “David, a lot of ground covered- what did you come away with?” Gergen, who once c ompared Obama to a damsel in distress , and was left in awe of how “articulate” the President was during an earlier press conference in 2009, immediately launched into his lauds about the President’s “competence” and “subtlety of mind,” but almost within the same breath, changed gears: GERGEN: Well, John, he- once again, he impresses everyone with his competence. He has capacity to deal with a range of issues. The subtly of his mind I think is very impressive. At the same time, I thought it was mostly passionless, and frankly, boring, as it went on and on until that last question on the mosque, and then it came alive. And I think the President- that’s going to be- his statements today- very passionate, controversial, but he took a much clearer stand in favor of the mosque going there than anything he said in the past. Four minutes later, anchor Candy Crowley theorized that “part of the reason that the administration held this news conference is the President has got to get all of those people who voted for him in 2008 to come out and vote for Democrats in 2010.” She then asked Martin, “Did you see anything in this news conference where you think voters went- yeah, I’ve got to get out and go to those polls?” Martin wholeheartedly agreed with Crowley’s theory about the press conference, and then replied to Gergen, acting as an apologist for the President, even while giving some mild critiques: MARTIN: Well, I think- first of all, remember, we’re in the midst of the NFL kicking off this weekend, and so, I’ll use a football analogy. He’s the quarterback- while doing that, go Houston Texans- he is the quarterback. He has to set the tone, and so, part of the problem here, he- the White House and Democrats have been off. And so, when he comes out and says- look, I will sign this bill this month, as it relates to middle class tax cuts, what are you going to do, what do you want to do? That’s the way of doing that. He also, I think, broke down, in a sense, what the Democrats have to articulate, and that is, how bad of a situation we were in walking to the door, and how we are on this road to progress. And I think he could have been more clear by saying- look, Republicans constantly have thrown up roadblocks, they constantly are saying no, blocking appointments- they want to block progress. That’s really what he was trying to do there. But let me also address something that David said. David talked about- well, you know, the nuance and what he said- you know, and it was boring. Well, you know what? He’s not an entertainer. And so, I never get the sense, watching the President, that the President really should be entertaining and really should come out- you know, guns blazing. He is going to talk about policy and these issues. And so, I listen to anybody out of Washington, D.C.- I’m really not looking for somebody who is going to just enamor me- you know, in terms of how great they are. They’re going to talk about things in a substantive way. And so, that’s really how I took it , and I think anybody who is wanting the President to say something- you know, when it comes to policy, you got that, not entertainment. It’s not surprising that Martin would respond this way, as he was one of CNN’s resident Obama spokesman during the 2008 presidential campaign.

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Tagged 2010 congressional, Barack Obama, Cnn, competence, david gergen, gergen, Hollywood, House, Obama, president, press, roland martin, white

Olbermann: Sherrod was ‘Assassinated by Fox News and That Scum Breitbart’

Posted on July 21, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Keith Olbermann interrupted his much-needed vacation Wednesday to surprise his few viewers with a “Special Comment” about the forced resignation of USDA official Shirley Sherrod. Quite predictably, his greater than twelve minute tirade largely focused on Fox News and Andrew Breitbart — the latter repeatedly referred to as “scum” as well as a “pornographer of propaganda” — who he claimed “assassinated” Sherrod. After starting his rant by pompously comparing the former USDA official to Alfred Dreyfus, the French artillery officer falsely accused of treason and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil’s Island, the “Countdown” host tore into almost everyone on the planet (video follows with partial transcript and commentary): KEITH OLBERMANN: No matter how much of a stretch it is to compare Shirley Sherrod to Alfred Dreyfus, mistake it not: Shirley Sherrod has been to her own Devil’s Island. And thanks to the perpetual fraud machine that is Fox News and the scum that is this assassin Breitbart, there will be a portion of this country – the mindless, the hateful, the reactionary, the racist – to whom she is forever convicted and ever imprisoned….A reputation assassinated by Fox News, assassinated by that scum Breitbart, assassinated by all their meager-brained imitators on other channels and other websites, their limp fellow travelers who never asked questions first but simply shot and shot and shot and shot and laughed. Let me make this utterly clear: what you see on Fox News, what you read on right-wing websites is the utter and complete perversion of journalism and it can have no place in a civilized society. It is words crashed together never to inform, only to inflame. It is a political guillotine. It is the manipulation of reality to make the racists seem benevolent, and to convict the benevolent as racists, even if her words must be edited, filleted, stripped of all context, rearranged, fabricated and falsified to do so. What you see on Fox News, what you read on right-wing websites is a manipulation, not just of a story, not just on behalf of a political philosophy, manipulation of a society. It’s intentional redirection from reality and progress to a paranoid delusion and the fomenting of hatred of Americans by Americans and nearly every last word of it is never in any tangible sense true. Ask Shirley Sherrod. C’mon! Dreyfus spent four years of hell on Devil’s Island, and was exonerated eleven years after his conviction. Seems astonishingly extreme to compare what Sherrod has gone through in the past 48 hours to that. The way things are looking, the former USDA official will likely be able to leverage this incident into quite a personal fortune if she plays her cards right. Just imagine the book and movie offers that could be in her future. But that wasn’t the only absurdity on display Wednesday evening as it really was the height of gall for Olbermann to point fingers at Breitbart for publishing an edited video at his website when two weeks ago the “Countdown” host cherry picked from a Rush Limbaugh radio transcript to make the conservative talk show host look racist. Talk about words being “edited, filleted, stripped of all context, rearranged, fabricated and falsified!” Now that REALLY is the pot calling the kettle black. On that same night, Olbermann also falsified history to mock Nevada senatorial candidate Sharron Angle AND got so many things wrong concerning oil subsidies and BP that PolitiFact almost gave him a “Pants on Fire” rating days later. As such, Olbermann chastising anyone about journalistic ethics and integrity is like a porn star lecturing teenagers about the virtues of abstinence. Moving back to Wednesday’s insanity, the “Countdown” host later scolded NAACP President Ben Jealous for not talking to the white farmer that Sherrod spoke of in her March 27 address to the civil rights organization. He did the same for Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack for not looking at the entire video in question. Yet, as he accused seemingly everyone of wrongdoing — which, by the way, included President Obama and MSNBC — Olbermann never once told viewers if HE had spoken to Sherrod, the farmer in question, or seen the entire video. What research had Olbermann done while on vacation to come to the conclusion that Sherrod was 100 percent innocent and all of her accusers — regardless of the ones that are now backpedaling — were 100 percent wrong? Wasn’t Olbermann doing exactly what he was scolding others for: offering an opinion without all the facts? Well, what should we expect of a man so desperately in need of a vacation after only two days off? With this in mind, as much as we’ll miss him, might we suggest he complete his R&R before offering any more “special comments?” After all, as much as he needed a vacation, America required some time off from his psychotic rantings. Honestly, Keith, two days wasn’t enough. Go back to bed.

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Tagged book, david gergen, introduction, keith-olbermann, managing-editor, president, secretary, shirley, shirley-sherrod

Shirley Sherrod Reminds CNN’s Gergen of Nelson Mandela

Posted on July 21, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Exhibiting an extreme case of the media euphoria over Shirley Sherrod’s vindication, moments before Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack appeared before the cameras CNN senior political analyst David Gergen gushed to Rick Sanchez: I have to tell you, Rick, I don’t want to put her on too high a pedestal. I don’t think she would want that. But I kept thinking about Nelson Mandela as I heard her story, because he had to overcome the same sort of hatred on both sides. And he became this larger-than-life figure and I think we all loved him and revered him because he was able to grow like that. And there is that quality about her story. 48 hours without a job just like 27 years in prison. And how did she experience “hatred on both sides?” Gergen continued, at about 4:45 PM EDT Wednesday afternoon on CNN’s Rick’s List: And as you know, so many of us who come from the South have lived with race and have had to sort of struggle, sometimes had to struggle in our souls to reach this plane. And she sort of reached this place of ascendance, which I really respect in her. Being compared to Mandela is the ultimate tribute from a liberal. In the introduction to his book, ‘Mandela’s Way: Fifteen Lessons on Life, Love, and Courage,’ which was published in April, Time magazine Managing Editor Richard Stengel enthused : It is impossible to write about Nelson Mandela these days and not compare him to another potentially transformational black leader, Barack Obama. The parallels are many… While it took twenty-seven years in prison to mold the Nelson Mandela we know, the forty-eight-year-old American President seems to have achieved a Mandela-like temperament without the long years of sacrifice. Obama’s self-discipline, his willingness to listen and to share credit, his inclusion of his rivals in his administration, and his belief that people want things explained, all seem like a twenty-first century version of Mandela’s values and persona.