You can look around the blogosphere a little and supply your own links, or if anybody claims I’m attacking a straw man, I guess I’ll have to go and do it. Just for an example, though (and I’ve also read some and seen numerous tweets to this effect), NPR reported on their listener mail today and said that lots and lots of people were OUTRAGED that by giving ex-VP Cheney as much speech time as Obama, they had elevated what he had to say to the same level of importance as the Commander-in-Chief’s.
Let me explain this to you as simply as I can: Obama is the one who elevated the importance of Cheney’s speech. Cheney’s speech had been publicly announced in advance when ObamaCo decided that it would be a really great idea to pre-empt the event by bigfooting it.
Mr. Obama scheduled his speech late last week, after Mr. Cheney’s speech already had been publicly scheduled. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the timing “wasn’t based on the fact that anybody else was speaking.†Mr. Cheney delayed the scheduled beginning of his remarks by half an hour to wait for Mr. Obama to finish.
Late Thursday, it wasn’t clear whether Mr. Obama had allayed doubts. “We’re all awaiting the details of the plan and the president is going to come up with one,†Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said after the speech, suggesting that Democrats still needed information before they draw ranks around the Obama policies.
Does any one of you actually believe this statement by Gibbs? Really?
Obama’s speech was an attempt to pre-empt any slight attention that might otherwise have been given to Cheney’s speech, and to cast the issues in terms that would favor the narrative that he has invested himself in, quite successfully. The problem is, it was a bad idea. You throw the gauntlet down so demonstratively, and it’s an invitation for a crowd to gather. The genius advisers didn’t calculate quite right, and it blew up in his face like a quail-hunting gun.
Why? Because the MSM’s treatment of Obama during the campaign and up to this point in his presidency has been so deferential that he has come to believe that he has a right to monopolize the message. So have many of his supporters. The learning curve is awfully steep, guys. It was a dipshit maneuver. Get used to it.
Comment by TendStl on 5/22 @ 6:45 pm #
Sorry I don’t have a link, but there is an article out there saying that it was Dems in Congress that talked Obama into doing this. Supposedly he didn’t want to but Dingy Harry got his way.
Comment by JD on 5/22 @ 6:52 pm #
Barcky made a bad decision to elevate Cheney’s speech well beyond the level of attention it would have received had he not chosen to try to pre-empt Cheney with a prebuttal.
Comment by geoffb on 5/22 @ 6:54 pm #
Perhaps he was counting on his “gift”.
Comment by JD on 5/22 @ 6:55 pm #
geoffb – To Barcky, that is a feature, not a bug. It allows him to co-opt the Bush positions that he has denounced.
Comment by Dash Rendar on 5/22 @ 6:55 pm #
I think ‘dipishit’ and ‘Obama’ should be used more continguously more often maybe.
Comment by newrouter on 5/22 @ 6:58 pm #
mr. “f**kin mt suit strawman” president oh and he’s a progg tool
Comment by JD on 5/22 @ 6:58 pm #
Along with nancy-boy and poofter …
Comment by geoffb on 5/22 @ 7:02 pm #
I didn’t think it was a bug for him, it does bug me that so many can’t see through it.
Comment by Bob Reed on 5/22 @ 7:03 pm #
The O!ne needed to create this tension in order to stem the rising tide of dissatisfaction among the far-far-lunatic fringe left that he isn’t being radical enough!
You see, for all their intellect and, ahem, nuance, most of O-bummer’s masses are easily distracted…
Look!, Bunnies!= Look! Cheney!!1!1!eleventy!1!11!
Comment by geoffb on 5/22 @ 7:03 pm #
Grifter deluxe.
Comment by Joe on 5/22 @ 7:05 pm #
Meanwhile the GOP is kissing up to Ariana.
Perhaps this is what Michael Huffington used to feel like when he had to service Ariana on Saturday nights.
Comment by newrouter on 5/22 @ 7:06 pm #
“the sting” rings true
Comment by Dash Rendar on 5/22 @ 7:21 pm #
Servicing Ariana I bet included a large, bi-weekly invoice from the nice folks at the KY corporation. Um, What? Who said that?
Comment by Bob Reed on 5/22 @ 7:22 pm #
Sorry, I forgot…
This is one of the places where I caught wind of the “Obama Sucks!” trend on the part of some of the left…
http://americanpowerblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/obama-sucks-at-transcending-our.html#links
And of course, the grumblings of Paul Krugman…
Best Wishes
Comment by JD on 5/22 @ 7:34 pm #
Servicing Ariana ?! Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. No wonder he switched teams.
Comment by newrouter on 5/22 @ 7:42 pm #
does arriana shave?
Comment by JD on 5/22 @ 7:51 pm #
Brazilian landing strip, with barbed wire.
Comment by The Sanity Inspector on 5/22 @ 7:51 pm #
Welcome to the NBA, Mr. President.
Comment by The Sanity Inspector on 5/22 @ 7:53 pm #
Bush/Cheney waterboarded terrorists, and seven years later I’m not dead from a terrorist attack. If eight years from now, after Obama softens up on them, I get killed, he’ll have some explaining to do.
Comment by serr8d on 5/22 @ 7:53 pm #
Heh.
Comment by Jeffersonian on 5/22 @ 8:09 pm #
This Cheney, he is teh vicious! When attacked, he fights back!
Comment by newrouter on 5/22 @ 8:11 pm #
hey O! what about the brothers in new york?
here
Comment by J. "Trashman" Peden on 5/22 @ 8:11 pm #
Cheney speaks the truth, Obama lies.
Comment by Darleen on 5/22 @ 8:33 pm #
Comment by serr8d on 5/22 @ 7:53 pm
Yeegods, the post was bad enough but the “commenters” are rabid.
Pingback by You’d think he was inexperienced or something. « The TrogloPundit on 5/22 @ 8:40 pm #
[...] by Leftists Rage Against MSM [Dan Collins] | May 22, [...]
Comment by JD on 5/22 @ 8:41 pm #
Thanks, a freakin’ lot, Darleen. I had not read the comments until you mentioned them. Now, I feel dirty. Very dirty. Must bathe in bleach.
Were it not for Serr8d poking the hornet’s nest with a sharp stick … ;-)
Comment by sdferr on 5/22 @ 8:57 pm #
It is hard to tell whether the vast numbers of Americans who pay little attention to politics will figure out anytime soon that Obama is lying to them, though I assume they must eventually get the picture as their expectations based on Obama’s blather run into reality. While the reporters could help those Americans out if they chose to, speeding up the process somewhat, they seem to have decided otherwise for now, though I suppose even they may tire of being baldly lied to everyday by the likes of Robert Gibbs.
Comment by JD on 5/22 @ 8:59 pm #
I suppose even they may tire of being baldly lied to everyday by the likes of Robert Gibbs.
sdferr – I would point out that though you chose the phrase “baldly lied to”, the phrase “badly lied to” would also work. Gibbs is one of the few, if not the only, that has managed to make McClelland look competent.
Comment by ThomasD on 5/22 @ 9:26 pm #
This will not end well for anyone. The media is playing a phenomenally stupid game, one they cannot maintain forever. Should their duplicity becomes apparent to a plurality they will have effectively forfeited any role as a watchdog against future abuses of governmental authority.
Obambi thinks he’s all cute for strong arming the bond holders in favor of the UAW, knowing that he’s getting cover from his j-school support squad. Well, once the rule of law has effectively gone out with the bathwater who is to say what the next demagogue won’t put on his agenda? And with no shred of credibility left in the media who is to tell the public anything otherwise?
Comment by serr8d on 5/22 @ 9:26 pm #
That’s one of my (few) lefty RSS reads; occasionally I’ll comment. At least I can comment there. The host isn’t as certifiably paranoid as a certain bicycling lunatic…and, the photos they find are sometimes remarkable. They just come up with some of the craziest spins imaginable. Case in point…this, from Tuesday. Kid’s already been measured for a coffin, if you want to believe those fruitcakes. I sent that photo off to my favorite gunblogger to get some real analysis.
Comment by JD on 5/22 @ 9:42 pm #
Thanks, serr8d. The comments in that thread are … wow. Just, wow.
Comment by geoffb on 5/22 @ 10:10 pm #
MSM pleads.
We still love you smooch, smooch.
Comment by JD on 5/22 @ 10:14 pm #
geoffb – The media is unbiased. Dammit.
Besides, God’s listening.
Comment by JD on 5/22 @ 10:19 pm #
ZOMG – The evil Chimperor was elevated to equal status of Teh Lightworker!!!!!!!!!! The MSM is in the tank for Chimpy McHitlerBurton and helps them continue their smirky little pony ride through history while Teh One is left to clean up after their mess.
Comment by geoffb on 5/22 @ 10:29 pm #
JD,
Too much back history on the net. This won’t save you from the re-ed.
Comment by dicentra on 5/22 @ 10:32 pm #
War happens because we spend all that time and money making weapons and ammo, and we can’t let it all go to waste, can we? Exactly! The gubmint — and especially the military — cannot BEAR to waste so much as a bullet, because using up weapons in a good old-fashioned blow ‘em up is the ONLY way to make way for all those shiny NEW weapons that we order from our good friends, the military contractors. It’s unthinkable that they’d sit there idly and just plain go obsolete. Nope, the gubmint is one efficient war machine, that’s what.
Because men sitting behind desks feel their youth draining from them and must send young men to war to live vicariously through them. They are just that venal: let other mens’ sons die so that they can get some fourth-quarter jollies. It makes them feel like men again to watch them die.
War is definitely NOT what it used to be. Not at all. It’s not about who is in control of a particular plot of dirt: us or them. It’s not about purging one’s shame for being an utter failure when God promised that the infidel would not prosper, so obviously they’ve got to set things right themselves. It’s not about malignant sociopaths who tell their people pretty lies, that they’ll provide them with bread and circuses and real wine if they drive out the current sociopath and put the new one in. Because this time it will be different.
It’s not about the arrogance of the elite who are certain that when they are in power and get rid of all the bad apples (and bad ideas, and bad institutions) that they’ll finally get rid of humanity’s pathologies, because they are just that damn smart.
And it’s DEFINITELY not about preventing the cancer of tyranny from metastasizing and infecting the neighboring cells. Not about the fragility of liberty and the steely cold reality that tyranny never sleeps, that the ambitious and ruthless never sleep, that no matter how well you weed the garden today, you’ll have to weed it again tomorrow. And that failure to pull the weeds when they’re few and small results in the slow starvation and death of the flowers and vegetables.
Nope. It’s the existence of arms that causes war. Especially back when they had to make their own bows and spears. Damned military-industrial complex must be the first oldest profession, yeah?
Comment by JD on 5/22 @ 10:33 pm #
I am doing my best to pull a Gibbs and try to walk back from my years of wingnuttia. It is not working so well. I always start laughing.
Besides, God’s listening.
Comment by JD on 5/22 @ 10:35 pm #
dicentra – I blame cavemen, and missing links, for making arrows, and bothering God.
Comment by geoffb on 5/22 @ 10:43 pm #
Your leader hears your cry and is doing all he can to help.
Comment by SBP on 5/22 @ 10:49 pm #
Did you all see that Obama has appointed a new SecDef?
Comment by troll #983 on 5/22 @ 10:57 pm #
If your god existed he’d prevent the idea of guns.
All crows are black.
Eleventy/Exclamation.
Comment by JD on 5/22 @ 10:58 pm #
geoffb – Have I ever mentioned that I really do not like that Barcky person. What a mendoucheous little asshat. He is giving more to his buddies at Acorn and the UAW than all of the evil “over-runs” that they are so gallantly going to slaughter. Fuck them. Fuck ‘em well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqMc9B7uDV8
Comment by geoffb on 5/22 @ 11:03 pm #
JD,
Is this to be a contest. If so in good proper PC liberal fashion I think we are all winners in the how much do you think Baraky is a “mendoucheous little asshat” contest.
Comment by JD on 5/22 @ 11:08 pm #
geoffb – That is a contest that I am confident I could do well in, though happyfeet would win, hands down.
I read your link and started cussing under my breath, trying not to wake up my girls. Odd that fiscal controls are going to be cracked down on the military, but the rest of the budget for new programs and social services and campaign give-aways is going to spend like a bankrupt meth addict with a stolen Platinum card. Remember the “net negative growth” campaign promise? All new spending will be offset by closing corporate loopholes? Fuck them. ;-)
Comment by geoffb on 5/22 @ 11:14 pm #
He is all the bad, failed, stupid, policies of all the worst Democrat Presidents of the past 100 years rolled into one smooooooze talking package and turned up to 13!!!! because 11!!!! is so last year.
Comment by JD on 5/22 @ 11:18 pm #
I watched MSNfellatio for a while last night and tonite. First, Olbergasm had a complete meltdown over Cheney yesterday. Sir, you are a bad bad person Sir. Go fuck yourself Sir. MadCow is flat out bad. Even my barking moonbat father thinks she is horrible. Larry O’Donnell completely flipped out and went krazy on Cheney. All I really learned is that Teh One polls really well, and apparently they are all okay with Barcky pushing President Bush’s evil policies. Axelrod was on with Chrissy, and I nearly threw the plasma into the lake. And the only real justification for any of it is because Teh Lightworker polls well, and the rest of the world likes him, as though that gives some kind of command to the overall asshattery of this stooge and his goons. I guess we are getting the government that 52% of us deserve.
Comment by geoffb on 5/22 @ 11:31 pm #
And all swans are white until they’re not.
I see that white crow coming,
a coming ’round the bend,
I bet we don’t see sunshine,
blue skies ne’er again.
Stuck in Obama prison,
time keeps dragging on.
Our freedom getting lost now,
down the drain we go.
Comment by JD on 5/22 @ 11:32 pm #
Here is a poem for all of you …
We were graced by
Tennyson yesterday but
Teh One and Sammy are dumb asses.
Comment by geoffb on 5/22 @ 11:36 pm #
All Obama’s polls are good until they’re not.
That white crow will be a bitch.
Comment by psycho... on 5/23 @ 1:40 am #
All right, mister. I’m finally back from a long evening spent swallowing the expensive poison liquids of your homeland, so I’ll repeat, with poisoned brevity:
Wrong.
The purpose of Obama’s Cheney-preemption was to reinforce his fans’ image of Him as on-all-sides-besieged Leader.
His fans are now pissed at other of his fans for besieging him with Cheney.
Two words: Mau.
One word: Pwnt.
Comment by Salt Lick on 5/23 @ 5:16 am #
I understand what you’re saying, psycho, but I think The One and his Councilors have miscalculated with Cheney just as they did in attacking Rush Limbaugh. What I sense, as you once put it, is an opposition that, once in full retreat, now sees some flags raised where it can halt and rally. What I see is Cheney’s poll numbers rising, a Democrat Congress following their constituents’ concerns and not The One, and a rising listener base for Limbaugh.
It all depends on the economy. If it goes South next year, The One is going to look like the Wizard of Oz when Toto pulled the curtain back. The People will turn on him.
(Now that’s what I call Hope.)
Comment by Rusty on 5/23 @ 5:17 am #
#41
All crows are black.
In fact there are albino crows and white ravens.
Comment by Salt Lick on 5/23 @ 5:33 am #
And another thing — I’ve know something like ObamaLove, and I know Teh Stupid is not permanent. I was a naive 21 year old who worked to get Carter elected in 1976. I loved the guy. Absolutely thought he was the one (a president who could quote Bob Dylan — Dude!) IIRC, Carter was more popular in his first six months of office than The One. One year out, and I’m done. I’ve never voted Democrat again.
With regard to the MSM —
All The One’s Bitches and all The One’s Men, won’t count for shit when reality sets in.
Comment by Molon Labe on 5/23 @ 5:33 am #
I’m about to go off the rails.
Comment by N. O'Brain on 5/23 @ 6:51 am #
“I was a naive 21 year old who worked to get Carter elected in 1976.”
Oh, so it’s YOUR fault.
Comment by urthshu on 5/23 @ 7:22 am #
51, Salt Lick –
Not that I’m looking forward to it, but I do think the economy is going south fairly rapidly, esp. if you’re watching the movement in the Bond markets. Basically we’re floating all our spending on Ts and their looking pretty anemic at the moment, with weak sales, increasing sell-offs, and a much-lowered perception of our creditworthiness.
Its interesting, though. Credit and debt and becoming less attractive, but that drives up the value of dollars [liquidity, yo] so scarcity is king. And, comparatively speaking, we might be screwed but everyone else [Spain @ 17+% unemployment, UK @ 300+% inflationary spending, etc] is screwed even more.
I think if the bond market implodes [and we're close, IMHO] we’ll see an immediate contraction in government spending. It’ll be a freer world in many ways but not in a direction anybody will like.
Comment by geoffb on 5/23 @ 7:25 am #
No, I can claim my own share of the blame and second Salt Lick in that I never voted Democrat again. Carter was a vaccine in that way.
Comment by geoffb on 5/23 @ 7:36 am #
On Mau-mau-ing the press. They did what they did before, in the campaign, out of love and greed for power. By going to the stick, the pitchfork as it may, making it about fear of loss not anticipation of mutual gain, the press has been turned from a loving wife with a bit of gold-digger to an abused spouse.
The pitchfork must now always be present, visible, even though not used too often. He better hope those chains hold whenever he sleeps. The slope of payback just steepened.
Comment by Salt Lick on 5/23 @ 7:40 am #
Oh, so it’s YOUR fault.
Don’t be mean, N.O.Brain. That was like admitting I’d slept with Rosie O’Donnell when she was AC-DC.
Comment by AJB on 5/23 @ 7:44 am #
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/226/story/68643.html
Dick Cheney is basically a liar, just so you know.
Comment by SDN on 5/23 @ 7:58 am #
AJB is basically irrelevant, as we all know.
Comment by Abe Froman on 5/23 @ 7:58 am #
Dick Cheney is basically a liar, just so you know.
You have a stomach full of Obama jizz, just so you know.
Comment by SDN on 5/23 @ 8:01 am #
Kipling (as usual) has an excellent take:
Comment by Dan Collins on 5/23 @ 8:01 am #
AJB–that’s why he’s pointing out the redactions in the documents that Obama released, and asking him to release more.
Their argument centers around the question of whether the information gleaned from waterboarding mightn’t have been gotten in another way. It’s an unanswerable question.
Comment by JD on 5/23 @ 8:04 am #
AJB buggers goats, just so you know.
Comment by geoffb on 5/23 @ 8:05 am #
Ah, yes. McClatchy Newspapers, Jonathan S. Landay and Warren P. Strobel.
No need for a pitchfork with this pair. They have learned to love the whip and the “shiny, shiny, shiny boots of leather”.
Comment by SarahW on 5/23 @ 8:11 am #
What, Obama couldn’t block out the sun? HERESY! BLASPHEMY!
Comment by geoffb on 5/23 @ 8:44 am #
Is it news? No, it’s McClatchy. Running hard to be on top for the new Ministry of Truth gig.
Comment by sdferr on 5/23 @ 8:46 am #
Did y’all see Steny Hoyer go to take hold of Nancy Pelosi yesterday when Pelosi was asked, in the very first question she took — what about your claim that the CIA was lying to you, Boehner has said produce evidence or apologize? — Hey, Steny! Get your filthy paternalistic hands off our Speaker, you MCP! She can not-answer the question on her own, thank you very much.
Pingback by Jules Crittenden » Jump-Shark Waterboarded! on 5/23 @ 8:51 am #
[...] Protein Wisdom: Left on left rage! See Vermontaigne below with a great idea in comments. Pay per view MSM talking head waterboarding! [...]
Comment by N. O'Brain on 5/23 @ 8:56 am #
“Comment by AJB on 5/23 @ 7:44 am #
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/226/story/68643.html
Dick Cheney is basically a liar, just so you know.”
And you’re basically an asshole, just so you know.
Comment by sdferr on 5/23 @ 8:57 am #
Barack Obama is a cowardly pussy.
Comment by N. O'Brain on 5/23 @ 9:01 am #
AJB rages against his allowance.
Comment by Rusty on 5/23 @ 9:02 am #
#60
The article was an army of strawmen. Not a good army to bring to a board war.
Dick Cheney is basically a liar, just so you know.â€
“AJB is basically a liar, just so you know.”
See. It works for anybody and not really a strong defense.
Might want to work on those critical thinking skilzzzzah.
Comment by bill on 5/23 @ 9:02 am #
Outing myself before the Obama Truth Commissars come to my village. I campaigned for George McGovern in 1972. Of course the call center was at a brewery with an open tap. Electing our first communist president 36 years early was a small price to pay for a cheap drunk.
Comment by McGehee on 5/23 @ 9:13 am #
I didn’t support McGovern in ‘72, because I thought his stand on how to get out of Vietnam (bent over, ankles grabbed) wasn’t the right thing to do. However I still in those years considered myself a Democrat sympathizer. It wasn’t until the combination of President Carter and then-Governor Jerry Brown (guess which state I lived in at the time) that I finally decided I could no longer support that party.
Just in time to turn 18, register to vote, and help elect Ronald Reagan to the presidency.
I got interested in politics way too young. But what bothers me is, how many people in this country are way over 18 and still supporting Democrats. Talk about arrested development!
Comment by Carin on 5/23 @ 9:28 am #
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/226/story/68643.html
Dick Cheney is basically a liar, just so you know.
Well, I’m out. I mean, how does one counter such an argument?
Comment by JD on 5/23 @ 9:39 am #
Don’t you have some obsessive working out to do, Carin? ;-)
Week 3 of no soda and Chiantix is no more fun than Week 1. But it is far better than reading that drivel from AJB and Sammy.
Comment by geoffb on 5/23 @ 9:41 am #
Today is probably more of a “get the plants set in” day. At least around here in SW Mich.
Comment by Pablo on 5/23 @ 10:19 am #
Fortunately, you don’t have to counter, Carin. After all, it’s AJB so it would be like trying to argue with a fart. It doesn’t have anything else to say. Just leave a window opened and feel chastened.
Comment by SBP on 5/23 @ 10:26 am #
Has AJB ever actually engaged in a conversation?
All I’ve ever seen him do is drop a single turd in the punch bowl and then disappear.
Comment by Pablo on 5/23 @ 10:31 am #
No. He threatened to once, admitting his persistent drive by behavior and promising to engage on at least one issue in something approximating good faith. Then he disappeared.
Trackback by Ed Driscoll on 5/23 @ 2:59 pm #
Rage Against The MSM…
At Protein Wisdom, Dan Collins writes that the left are — as usual — seething. Only this time, it’s directed at their own media:
You can look around the blogosphere a little and supply your own links, or if anybody claims I’m attack…..
Comment by Thomas Jackson on 5/23 @ 4:40 pm #
Its fun to watch the Left blow up because their Fearless Ledaer demonstrates he has the morales of a Clinton, the competence of a Carter and the charm of a Nixon.
And by a old has been like Chenney too. He’d look truly bad if he went up against the A team.
Comment by Swen Swenson on 5/23 @ 7:15 pm #
There’s an A team? Where are they, holding Cheney’s coat?
Besides, we have the technology to rebuild this man. He’ll be faster, stronger, … I can see it now, 2012, the anamatronic Obama v. the bionic Dick. I know who I’d bet on..
Comment by EastcoastMurcielago on 5/23 @ 9:09 pm #
AJB got raped by a kangaroo just so you know
Comment by Blitz on 5/23 @ 9:13 pm #
Sdferr? I agree, OBAMBI is a pussy. but, keeping to the blogs intentions?
http://tinyurl.com/ouvddl
Comment by BuddyPC on 5/24 @ 7:28 am #
For a guy who’s against gay marriage, Obama sure lets that big Dick slap all over his stuff.
Comment by sdferr on 5/24 @ 8:33 am #
Thanks for the vid tip Blitz, it was, um, a nice display. While I can’t exactly add the word to my vocab (it being there already), I’ll undertake to slap it on the P-nit at the first opportunity.
Comment by nicholas on 5/25 @ 8:49 pm #
Obama thought this was the perfect chance to gun down the bad guys. Juxtapose a young, attractive thoughtful man of color with the angry, old white guy. It’s the perfect chance to put himself above the resistance movement (what little there is) and crush it under his boot. Unfortunately, it turned out that when VP Cheney spoke he was the picture of reasoned political argument, as that is who he is. Whereas President Obama’s airy rhetoric sounded hollow and tinny in light of the very real dangers we all face. Read a nice take on it here.