The brilliant guy in the White House:
"We will rebuild, we will recover and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before," the President said. "Let there be no doubt: health care reform cannot wait, it must not wait and it will not wait another year." Read the full text of President Barack Obama's powerful address before a Joint Session of Congress here.
Is this the best the Republicans have to offer?
Bobby Jindal epitomizes Republicanism. The Louisiana governor appears to forget a Republican president failed to aid Hurricane Katrina victims. Jindal also perpetuates a levitating train myth disproved by Newsweek. And he can't seem to grasp Obama's statement that no one earning less than $250,000 per year will face a tax increase.
Santelli and Liddy in fantasyland
In the Columbia Journalism Review, Ryan Chittum dissects Rick Santelli's misleading spin and NBC's cynical collaboration:
"Rick Santelli continues to make a fool of himself, touring the media to defend his call for a “tea party” over the homeowner bailout.
"I’d be inclined to let this dog of a discussion bark itself out, especially since Santelli chose to carry it to the paranoid ghettos occupied by the likes of G. Gordon Liddy.
"But this is too much.
"Not content with his soon-to-be-expired fifteen minutes of fame, Santelli went on Liddy’s radio show and complained that the White House was threatening him and/or his family, somehow.
"SANTELLI: He started that press conference saying, “I don’t know where he lives, I don’t know where his house is.” This is the Press Secretary of the White House. Is that the kind of thing we want? Is that —
"LIDDY: It’s a veiled threat.
"SANTELLI: It really is. […] I don’t really want to be a spokesman, but I really am very proud of a) the response I’m getting, which is overwhelmingly positive, and b) discourse, that is debate. That if the pressure and the heat I’m taking from the White House – the fact my kids are nervous to go to school – I can take that, okay.
"Now, Liddy knows about threats from the White House, having plotted to assassinate columnist Jack Anderson and he knows about other kinds, having encouraged listeners to shoot ATF agents in the head (“Head shots, head shots…. Kill the sons of bitches”), but the idea that the White House press secretary “threatened” Santelli is nuts and irresponsible.
"Here’s that “threat” from press secretary Robert Gibbs:
“I’ve watched Mr. Santelli on cable the past 24 hours or so. I’m not entirely sure where Mr. Santelli lives or in what house he lives but the American people are struggling every day to meet their mortgages, stay in their jobs, pay their bills, send their kids to school.”
"Poorly phrased, maybe, but Gibbs is clearly saying that Santelli is out of touch with regular people. A fair point, considering that Santelli thinks traders on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange represent a “cross-section of America” and that people who can’t pay their mortgage are “losers.”
"And here’s a question: Why is a CNBC editor going on a show with a convicted felon on the outer fringes of American public discourse?
"But the larger point is this: Santelli’s outburst, whether spontaneous or staged, is one thing. For NBC cynically to ride this tiger of fear and misguided outrage is something else entirely. Its producers and anchors encouraged Santelli during his blowup and now NBC’s networks have promoed the hell out of it (“Rick’s Revolution," “Rebel Yell,” including leading the NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams with it on Thursday.
"And now, on Liddy’s show, Santelli is completely off the reservation. NBC/CNBC only has itself to blame. Whatever the network’s calculations, this is a low point for the peacock. Playing with your credibility may give you a short-term gain, but it’s a long-term drain."
San Francisco Chronicle under threat
And the San Francisco Chronicle, once one of the nation's top ten newspapers, is in danger of folding. I have written for the Chronicle and while in recent years its quality has deteriorated, it would be a shame to see the city's major newspaper collapse.
Worried about health care? Just die young, writer says.
Mark Hemingway, writing for The National Review Online:
"Why do Democrats push preventative health care as a cost savings measure at every turn? If you want to save the healthcare system money, drop dead of a heart attack at 50. Living to 88 on the other hand — that's expensive."
Scroll down the page for an additional post today.
Scott, you're missing the point and it's an important one. Media Matters and several fact-checking organisations have all agreed Santelli twisted Gibbs' comments to make it seem as though he was being persecuted. That is not the case and you know it. The issue isn't about NBC News and who it employs or doesn't employ. The issue is that a White House secretary pointed out the obvious - that Santelli has a job and decent salary and doesn't necessarily grasp what it's like for many Americans who are losing their jobs and houses. The fact that Santelli - and the media - chose to take this statement, spin it and run with it shows how little discourse there is on real problems in America and how to solve them and how much of a spotlight there is shining on celebrity and personality.
People should be outraged over the dire straits of the economy. Santelli chose to be in the public eye and should have developed a thick skin by now. The fact that he whined to G. Gordon Liddy in particular -and anyone else who would listen - is a joke in itself. Santelli is a victim only of his own bad choices.
Further, the White House isn't threatening anyone. That is just a ridiculous and untrue statement!
Posted by: Tara Bradford | 27 February 2009 at 16:45
"Poorly phrased, maybe, but Gibbs is clearly saying that Santelli is out of touch with regular people. A fair point, considering that Santelli thinks traders on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange represent a “cross-section of America” and that people who can’t pay their mortgage are “losers.”
Santilli is a very bright guy that I have watched for years. Santilli always reports with a passion similar to what was seen in his rant. I see very few people that work with as much care and passion in their jobs. "Passion" is a thing that is very in vogue and many people admire, promote and long to have more of. Then, when someone displays it, they get knocked by those same masses...perhaps because those same people don't have as much for what they do. Santilli may have had a lot of floor traders around him physically. It is easy to knock the people on the financial floors as being elite and not representative of the populace. We must not forget that those same people are involved in what most long term workers in this country are involved in....pension funds and 401k's.
It was very unfortunate that the White House put Santilli in the cross-hairs with a direct response. It left them open to the image that, if you disagree with them, they will put you in your place. This alienates the right and upsets the middle. Our country is divided and seems to be getting more so. The White House has got to manage the middle.
NOTE: NBC also presides over MSNBC which is home to Keith Obamamerman and Rachel Madcow...as liberal as it gets. Chris Matthews is there as well and he has a left side bend in him as well.
Posted by: nutster | 27 February 2009 at 15:58
So what does Mark H think of Bush (age 62) and Cheney (age 68). Have they not done their part to help the US health care system?
Posted by: kris | 26 February 2009 at 20:40
I watched that Santelli ding-bat on the Today show this morning saying that Gibbs/Obama are threatening him- and that he shouldn't be called out specifically by the POTUS.
Matt Lauer- who actually did a pretty good job IMHO, pushed back on him hard basically saying that IF HE called out the President in the fashion that he did, shouldn't he expect that there will be a similar repsonse back to him??!!
Matt made him feel pretty foolish for thinking that Gibbs/Obama threatenend him. I mean, really?!
Between Santelli and Jindal- it really feels like *silly season* all over again!
xo
Posted by: My Melange | 26 February 2009 at 18:49
You know, the little I watched of the president's address last night was so well phrased, and so well spoken, that dare I say, this man can really think on his feet? He also makes a hell of a lot of sense.
I like him a bunch. He is a smart guy. xo!
Posted by: Gillian daSilva | 26 February 2009 at 04:17
Thanks for this, Tara! I really enjoyed listening to Obama. I trust that guy! For the chronicle, oh well... I'm rooting for it. Makes me feel like something special would be truly missing without it. I adore how brilliant you are! xo
Posted by: GypsyGirl | 26 February 2009 at 03:09
Bravo, Obama.....and Tara!
Posted by: karen cole | 26 February 2009 at 01:23
Complete sentences. Clear thoughts. No smirks. Let there be no doubt, I like this guy!
Posted by: ally bean | 25 February 2009 at 21:12
Last night my friend called me and said -"I cannot remember the last time people in the grocery store were rushing to check out, so they could get home to watch the president speak". I said to her- Never has the restaurant had so many request to make reservations around the time, President Obama speaks. This is awesome!
Posted by: Christina | 25 February 2009 at 19:48
obama was brilliant last night. I'm so glad he is my president:) ..ultra consirvative republicans make me sick. Jindal? what a joke did he forget who was pres when Katrina hit? Do they really think he has a shot at the presidency someday? He sounded like a robot.
Posted by: Amy M | 25 February 2009 at 19:19
P.S. Santelli is making a spectacle of himself. He has gone off the deep end and, as happens to these crazies, gets to tour the airwaves talking about his craziness. NBC is treading a dangerous path....
Posted by: Colette Copeland | 25 February 2009 at 18:33
The nicest thing that can be said about Jindal is that he is horribly muddled. The difference between him and the Pres is like night and day. He comes across as the GOP's token "young brown person" and he is parroting exactly what they want: contradictions and stupidity. (You cannot prove to the world that you don't care about your constituents and then think you can be elected to the White House... that is mind-boggling.) He has put his political ambitions above the needs of the people of Louisiana, proving that he is in the wrong job. I hope Louisiana throws him out. In any case, he will have to take the consequences of his actions.
Posted by: Colette Copeland | 25 February 2009 at 18:31
It was so refreshing to once again be able to sit and listen to a President speak. He is brilliant.
Posted by: Rosa | 25 February 2009 at 17:44
Was Bobby Jindal's speech a pre-paid advertisement for Louisiana or what? Give me a break! After how they blew the Katrina catastrophe I hardly think he would want to tout his politics. Trust me, I understand bad politics, geesh! I'm from Illinois, first Blago and now Burris.... AAAH!
Posted by: MiddleAgedWomanBlogging | 25 February 2009 at 16:33
It was a great speech; just the right balance of caution and hope and he has a real plan - with specific details, short-term and long-term. What a concept!
It is a shame about the Chronicle but the quality is so poor, I find most of it a waste of paper. We now subscribe to "Sunday only", because the pink pages are still great and the sporting green is green again, and get the Mercury News every day.
Posted by: dutchbaby | 25 February 2009 at 15:40