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Gandalf Grey
Guest
The "What He Said" Game
By Cenk Uygur
Created Apr 17 2008 - 2:25pm
Every election cycle the Republicans play the same game of distraction. They
want to distract people from what they have done, so they turn the focus on
to what their opponents said, or what someone who can nominally be linked to
their opponents said.
And every year, the press dutifully plays along.
The ABC debate last night might have been the most egregious example because
it seemed like it was the only thing they asked about, but the whole
election so far has been littered with these false controversies. All of
this plays exactly into the hands of the Republicans. Don't worry about what
we did to this country, look away, instead spend all your time getting angry
about what someone said.
What did Rev. Wright say, what did a man from the Weather Underground say,
what did Obama say about bitter people, what did Hillary say about Bosnia?
And now, it's even sillier -- what did they wear? First, it was Hillary
wearing something that theoretically showed cleavage [1] -- and this was
supposed to prove how cunning she is. And now it's whether Obama wears a
flag lapel pin.
The thing that I keep wondering about is whether the actors in this play
realize they are in a theater of the absurd and dutifully do their parts or
if they are all naifs who are being played themselves.
Does Stephanopoulos realize that he is helping the Republican election
strategy by asking an insane and inane question about whether Obama wears an
American flag? Or does he have no clue as to how he is being spun? It's all
in the question, George. In case you don't know, let me make you aware, the
answer is irrelevant, the Republicans win when you ask the question because
1) it sets Obama up as unpatriotic and makes him look defensive when he
answers that he is patriotic =- it's like asking him whether he beats his
wife 2) it distracts from the real issues and gets people to vote the wrong
way based on superficialities rather than the real issues that effect their
lives.
This Republican administration, aided and abetted the whole way by the
Republicans in Congress, has led us into a disastrous war in Iraq. 4,000
Americans killed, 30,000 wounded, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians
killed. Think about that for a second. Hundreds of thousands of civilians -=
women, children, brothers, sisters, aunts, grandfathers =- all killed based
on a tremendous, world changing mistake by the Republicans, George W. Bush
and John McCain (and Hillary Clinton). And they're asking what Obama is
wearing?
It's the game of 'don't look at what we've done, look at what he said.' If
we don't all rise up and rebel against it, they are going to keep playing
this game forever. They asked Obama about what his neighbor said about
something his neighbor had done forty years ago. Do you know all the things
you're neighbor has said and done? And what would you do if you did know?
Give him a sound thrashing?
Meanwhile, Rome is burning. The economy is a mess. The dollar is crashing
because we have spent far too much money and borrowed even more for wars
that did more harm than good. And now Charlie Gibson asks, no demands, that
Clinton and Obama pledge to never, ever raise taxes. He says that revenues
always rise when you lower capital gains taxes. Really? Would they rise even
more if we lower the rate to 1%? How about 0%?
Does Charlie Gibson know that Republicans lower taxes irresponsibly every
time they get into office and then blame the Democrats for raising them
because the economy is crashing when they get into office? Does he know this
shell game? Does he know his question is loaded to make it appear that the
Democrats want to take your money and that everything would be fine if we
just stopped taxing everyone? Does he ever ask the Republicans to take a
pledge to not cut taxes if the budget isn't balanced? Think about that one
for a second. You have to think about it because it has never, ever been
asked of the Republicans.
But what a relief it was when they did ask the loaded policy questions
because they were at least policy questions. I timed it. It took 52 minutes
into the debate before the ABC "News" folks asked a single question on the
issues. They were a parody of themselves. It was embarrassing to watch.
Will someone ask John McCain -- yes or no, if you had to do Iraq war over
again, would you do it? I don't want to hear about how McCain complained
about Rumsfeld and how he would have done the war so much better. I want to
know, knowing what you know now, would you have invaded Iraq? Shoot, they
won't even ask him to apologize for what his pastor said [2] or what his
neighbor said, let alone ask him the most relevant question there is.
This game sickens me. All I want to know now is whether the so-called news
folks are in on it or if they are fools being played like clueless puppets.
I want to know whether I should be angry or sad. Imagine how embarrassed
they must feel this morning if none of this had ever occurred to them and
for the first time they realized they've been played for fools all along.
That the Republicans call them names, accuse them of being biased and then
have them do their bidding every year -- and then laugh at them behind their
back and talk about how pathetic they are.
--
NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not
always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material
available to advance understanding of
political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. I
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107
"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson
By Cenk Uygur
Created Apr 17 2008 - 2:25pm
Every election cycle the Republicans play the same game of distraction. They
want to distract people from what they have done, so they turn the focus on
to what their opponents said, or what someone who can nominally be linked to
their opponents said.
And every year, the press dutifully plays along.
The ABC debate last night might have been the most egregious example because
it seemed like it was the only thing they asked about, but the whole
election so far has been littered with these false controversies. All of
this plays exactly into the hands of the Republicans. Don't worry about what
we did to this country, look away, instead spend all your time getting angry
about what someone said.
What did Rev. Wright say, what did a man from the Weather Underground say,
what did Obama say about bitter people, what did Hillary say about Bosnia?
And now, it's even sillier -- what did they wear? First, it was Hillary
wearing something that theoretically showed cleavage [1] -- and this was
supposed to prove how cunning she is. And now it's whether Obama wears a
flag lapel pin.
The thing that I keep wondering about is whether the actors in this play
realize they are in a theater of the absurd and dutifully do their parts or
if they are all naifs who are being played themselves.
Does Stephanopoulos realize that he is helping the Republican election
strategy by asking an insane and inane question about whether Obama wears an
American flag? Or does he have no clue as to how he is being spun? It's all
in the question, George. In case you don't know, let me make you aware, the
answer is irrelevant, the Republicans win when you ask the question because
1) it sets Obama up as unpatriotic and makes him look defensive when he
answers that he is patriotic =- it's like asking him whether he beats his
wife 2) it distracts from the real issues and gets people to vote the wrong
way based on superficialities rather than the real issues that effect their
lives.
This Republican administration, aided and abetted the whole way by the
Republicans in Congress, has led us into a disastrous war in Iraq. 4,000
Americans killed, 30,000 wounded, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians
killed. Think about that for a second. Hundreds of thousands of civilians -=
women, children, brothers, sisters, aunts, grandfathers =- all killed based
on a tremendous, world changing mistake by the Republicans, George W. Bush
and John McCain (and Hillary Clinton). And they're asking what Obama is
wearing?
It's the game of 'don't look at what we've done, look at what he said.' If
we don't all rise up and rebel against it, they are going to keep playing
this game forever. They asked Obama about what his neighbor said about
something his neighbor had done forty years ago. Do you know all the things
you're neighbor has said and done? And what would you do if you did know?
Give him a sound thrashing?
Meanwhile, Rome is burning. The economy is a mess. The dollar is crashing
because we have spent far too much money and borrowed even more for wars
that did more harm than good. And now Charlie Gibson asks, no demands, that
Clinton and Obama pledge to never, ever raise taxes. He says that revenues
always rise when you lower capital gains taxes. Really? Would they rise even
more if we lower the rate to 1%? How about 0%?
Does Charlie Gibson know that Republicans lower taxes irresponsibly every
time they get into office and then blame the Democrats for raising them
because the economy is crashing when they get into office? Does he know this
shell game? Does he know his question is loaded to make it appear that the
Democrats want to take your money and that everything would be fine if we
just stopped taxing everyone? Does he ever ask the Republicans to take a
pledge to not cut taxes if the budget isn't balanced? Think about that one
for a second. You have to think about it because it has never, ever been
asked of the Republicans.
But what a relief it was when they did ask the loaded policy questions
because they were at least policy questions. I timed it. It took 52 minutes
into the debate before the ABC "News" folks asked a single question on the
issues. They were a parody of themselves. It was embarrassing to watch.
Will someone ask John McCain -- yes or no, if you had to do Iraq war over
again, would you do it? I don't want to hear about how McCain complained
about Rumsfeld and how he would have done the war so much better. I want to
know, knowing what you know now, would you have invaded Iraq? Shoot, they
won't even ask him to apologize for what his pastor said [2] or what his
neighbor said, let alone ask him the most relevant question there is.
This game sickens me. All I want to know now is whether the so-called news
folks are in on it or if they are fools being played like clueless puppets.
I want to know whether I should be angry or sad. Imagine how embarrassed
they must feel this morning if none of this had ever occurred to them and
for the first time they realized they've been played for fools all along.
That the Republicans call them names, accuse them of being biased and then
have them do their bidding every year -- and then laugh at them behind their
back and talk about how pathetic they are.
--
NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not
always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material
available to advance understanding of
political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. I
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107
"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson