In modern political discourse, per our punditry, a cult is defined as any sizable group of enthused supporters of a political candidate in a purported Democracy. But if we are going to be loose with definitions, then let us address the ‘Cult of Russert‘.
I admit, I didn’t watch the debate, I had other priorities ("Work your magic Mangroomer") but many brave masochists did. And from their comments it appears that with the exception of one group — television talking heads — the clear loser was the man who enables Dick Cheney to control the message, Tim Russert. Held up by his feted peers as the "Ultimate in Bobbleheads".
After all, Louis Farrakhan is black — Barack Obama is black — therefore anything Farrakhan says must be automatically what Obama thinks because apparently to Tim Russert all black men have an intellectual osmosis that links them together*. Like in "The Matrix" which had Cornel West in it so it must have some form of factual basis (only in Tim Russert World would African-American intellectuals be saved by Keanu Reeves). And, of course, feckless and worthless talking point driven questions were also directed toward Hillary Clinton.
But it is in more than this that Timmah & Friends fail us. Digby sums it up perfectly — having actually watched the debate:
The problem is Tim Russert and all his petty, shallow acolytes who spend all their time reading Drudge and breathlessly reporting every tabloid tidbit and sexy rumor and seeking out minor inconsistencies from years past in lieu of doing any real work.
Judging by their silly questions tonight, Russert and Williams obviously know nothing about health care policy, Iraq, Islamic terrorism, economics, global trade or any other subject that requires more than five minutes study to come up with some gotcha question or a stupid Jack Bauer fantasy. It’s embarrassing.
These people guide the way citizens perceive politics even if the citizens don’t know it. It’s hard for me to see how anything can truly change until this is dealt with.
A-yup.
*May mean that Clarence Thomas is a killer, unquestioning, cyborg from the future…or not.
(picture from i.m. timaaay)
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yo
Here’s my take, I didn’t particularly care for the Farrakhan line of questioning, and the initial question was about the fact that Farrakhan endorsed Obama, but it seems like it was good to get it out of the way. Barak handled it well and it opened the door for one of Obama’ best moments when Hillary got stupid on word usage.
gmornin
Dowd is in the Times dissin Hill, that migth wake someone up.
Mornin’, gang -
I’m with you, Attaturk; simply cannot stomach watching russert. Total gagger, he is.
20th Debate: Reality Show or a Spinoff?
NYT
And for the rest of the evening, the MSNBC debate did look a bit like the “S.N.L.” parody.
Mr. Obama twice mispronounced Massachusetts (“Massatoosetts”), the state where he went to law school. Later, Tim Russert, a moderator, challenged Mrs. Clinton to name — and pronounce — President Vladimir V. Putin’s chosen successor in Russia.
“Who will it be?” he asked. “Do you know his name?” She managed, gamely, referring to Dmitri A. Medvedev as “um, Med-medvedova, whatever.”
Hey–slept in this morning. Got up 10 mins. ago… I feel weird getting up at 5 AM CT…
News from MN–Northwest Airlines might be merging with Delta Airlines…
ThingsComeUndone’s probably sleeping in as well….
They have been talking about that in the ATL for weeks
I’m kinda behind in the news…*g*
Good morning, all.
can we do a Jane/Glen Pcikler (not yet coffee typing) LTE to NBC that will nail russert. same offense, using msm as pass through for smears.
Could someone pass it on?
Back to lurking and deadlines. Keep the constitution safe while I meet them.
Imus “You can see how much she hates him (Russert)” .
Meanwhile, MSNBC’s simply written off Hill…’coz Morning Joe just said ..”When we get back we’ll talk about how McCain’s strategy against Obama…”
Ouch!
Hell yes, let’s get it ON!
How cool is this:
By Karla Adam
Special to The Washington Post
Wednesday, February 27, 2008; Page A01
ABINGDON, England — Jordan Webb can predict the exact time of day his head will start aching. If the 10-year-old lingers outside the Reynolds grocery store past 5 p.m., a small black device latched onto the storefront and operated on a timer will emit a high-pitched sound that makes the boy’s skull feel like it’s popping.
“It sounds like ‘Eeeeeeeek’ and gives me a big headache,” said Jordan, who then covered his ears and made a face reminiscent of Macaulay Culkin’s famous pose in the “Home Alone” movies.
Jordan is referring to the Mosquito, a $975 transmitter designed to disperse young loiterers by making a loud humming noise that most people older than 25, such as his 41-year-old mother, can’t hear. The Mosquito has sparked a new sort of buzz in Britain, this time among political and civil rights groups that say the device is discriminatory and treats young people as second-class citizens.
My neighbor is out walking his dog too.
So what’s different *this* morning.
Good morning, pups. It’s solo MoDo, with a thing called “Begrudging His Bedazzling.” MoDo says Hillary Clinton can’t turn on her own charm and wit because she can’t get beyond what she sees as the deep injustice of Barack Obama not waiting his turn. Nothing new…
http://mgpaquin.wordpress.com/
The coffee, tea and hot chocolate are ready, and a batch of apple turnovers just came out of the oven. Have a great day.
Just trying to get things going!
Mornin’ Raven
^_^
Timmeh and Friends…*g*
What up?
FDL toobz acting up–double posts…
Paul Begala whining on Imus “They hate Hillary”
Good morning everyone. We’ve got 10 inches of new heavy thick snow outside. Yuck!
I did not watch the debate last night. I didn’t even have a hankering to watch it either. Sad, huh?
An alligator was found in Maine a few days ago and here’s MrMacrum (a fine Mainah) giving his take on it while suffering from a high flu fever…
http://thefilecabinet.blogspot…..-cats.html
LMAO! The man should be writing books. *shaking head*
I was watching the debate while bouncing between a couple different blogs, one leaning towards Hillary and the other to Obama.
It was kind of amusing to see the difference in perceptions (He’s winning – She pwns him) but there was one area of universal agreement:
Russert is a fucking tool!
Looks like Russert is the guy to unify the Democrats.
MOrning all.
Not so much on the snow here on the coast but I have still had enough of the stuff.
I see that the gooper running for Allen’s House seat said last night that waterboarding is not torture. That is not going to go over to well in Maine where voters do not suffer fools gladly.
Very brave (and stupid?) of you that watched the “debate” last night. I had to watch the flames in the woodstove and read a book. No time to watch these oh so important debates
That was delightful!
We got at least 10 inches of packed powder last night, Nomolos. Not looking forward to shoveling, but since my son is home from school, he’ll have something to do instead of watching television. ;-)
Anyone who says out loud that waterboarding is not torture must be used publicly as a test to verify it. See?
Good Morning Firepups,
It’s cloudy and chilly here this morning. After a mild rainy day, it feel very wintery–even though the rain whittled away a lot of our snow cover.
Haven’t watched the inanities they call debates, except the video clips that folks post here on the toobz. Staying away from television is a good thing.
I’ve got to go finish a grant proposal that gets delivered tomorrow.
I’ve got a big pot of tea, freshly-made coffee, and hot herb biscuits. Help yourselves. Marion, I just might take one of those apple turnovers for tomorrow. Thanks!
Work for peace, every day.
Inflation is at 7.4%, the dollar is like monopoly money, the housing industry is in the toilet, many people I know are being laid off or hours cut, the malls are empty, healthcare costs are going through the roof, the illegal and unwarranted Iraq invasion/occupation has cost a trillion bucks and the debate last night was apparently about whether Loius Farrakan should have the right of free speech. WTF
Marion, when I need a good pick-me-up, I head over to the Bozone. LOL! MrMacrum is always getting himself into a humdinger of some sort. I love the posts when he’s yelling at his snowblower because it’s broken down again and there’s 2 feet of snow in the yahd. Reminds me of my own father who would throw a tool or two and wouldn’t be able to get the tools back until the spring. LOL Fun times.
You may as well, working for a meaningful wage is history.
MoDo slams Hillary:
Ouch!
This might piss Joe Lieberman off this morning…
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/02/27/mideast/
Thanks for telling us about him. My mom was from Wiscasset, so I’ve been exposed to a rock-ribbed “Mainah!”
More from MoDo:
(Same link.)
Ouch!!!!x2
And to top it off, she ends with the line about driving the bus into a ditch… Do you think she’s sensing the end of Hillary’s candidacy?
I’d like to take this time to remind the people who supported George W. Bush over the years that ole Georgie’s grandfather Preston Bush financed and did business with the Nazis knowing full well what the Nazis were doing to the Jews…
http://latimesblogs.latimes.co…..akhan.html
youn know, when barak and hillary consolidate campaigns, when they both agree the debates are just for the free advertisement, they should pretty much ignore the stupid questions and have discussions with each other talking about their respective platforms and the solutions they’ll try to get passed which will address the issues facing america in the wake of this president
they should also start taking the initiative slapping down the president’s claim that he’ll be considered great in 50 years
that’s an escape clause against his depravity, with that escape clause, no matter how bad the result of his policies he will fall back on “in 50 years you’ll thank me”
that escape clause has to stop, they have to chuckle at the notion, they have to say;
“if it weren’t for this presidents inept decisions, we’d be at piece and prosperity now, not in 50 years, we’d have settled the unrest in the middle east between Iran and there would have never been unrest in Iraq
the man suffers from delusions if he thinks any good can result from his policies taking us to war with a country that posed no threat, creating middle east unrest and a hatred vile hatred against us this country has never known in her entire history
“Wiscaaaasit”? MrMacrum is definitely the crusty salt he talks about all the time on his blog! He truly is. My grandmother was the same kind of person too. Just full of quick wit with a twinkle in her eye laced with Maine sarcasm. Nice combo! ;-)
That about sums it up. The MSM fails the citizens again. My 16 year old granddaughter had better questions than Russert & Williams. The fact that Clinton latched on to the question and tried to use for herself was even worse. Quite possibly the most pathetic “debate” thus far.
Timmy on Morning Joe reputing Hill’s claim that she’s asked to respond first. Showing a clip where he addressed no one and she jumped in to answer first. Of course, you couldn’t tell from the clip who he was looking at. I missed much of the debate (family drama). Was HRC’s claim true? Timmy never gave the numbers on the issue which implies, to me, that they would have supported her claim.
And starting off with 16 minutes of “he said, she said” about the Battle of the Health Care Plans wasn’t particularly enlightening either. To me all it amounted to was “yes you did!,” followed by “no, I didn’t, but YOU did.”
Go get some coffee.
I can’t decipher what in heaven’s name you’re talking about.
Stop it I’m dieting.
Just goes to show…it’s not just FAUX. It’s all USDA~BS!!!
It’s bullshit, she would have bitched either way.
I just realized that I began commenting without saying good morning.
Good morning Attaturk. Great post as always. Russert, Matthews, Carlson, Buchanan, the whole lot of them should be shown the door.
We have a real problem with our media in our country. Lanny Davis is on right now whining and crying.
It’s pathetic!
Now I can make a cup of tea and finish reading the comments.
She paid good money for that canned answer. Can’t let it go to waste.
If the MSM would do their jobs we would already know the facts about each candidate’s healthcare plan, where they stand on NAFTA. The “debates” could be about substantive topics that have not been covered in depth. And would someone please explain to the moderators what a debate is and what time limits are.
I thought I heard Russert say something to the effect of, “If you don’t repudiate Farrakhan every Jew in New York will stop supporting you!”
Time limits are whatever they agree on and Willimas said at the start they were not set in stone.
Yes, I understand that and these so called debates are more informal than actual debating. It just seems that the responses just went on and on.
I love Wiscassett. It’s one of my favorite flying destinations. The FBO there is called Wicked Good Aviation Services and the airport ID is KIWI.
Gotta love those lobstahs too.
Good morning Attaturk and FDLers.
Sometimes the similarities between the people of the US and the people of Israel are pretty striking.
Watching Imus also. Andy Rooney was on. Mention of Siegelman? Not.
And Imus thinks Russert didn’t gotcha Obama like he did Hillary with the Medvedev question. Maybe he needs to ask his sidekicks Tony and Kerith whether they agree. I thought the Farrakhan gotcha was way over the line.
blogged about it at my homeblog, and I’m particularly glad that moment caught the eye of Attaturk and Digby and doubtless lots of others, too.
Prairie Today: She Wore Brown
I guess I’m easily entertained. I actually thought the debate was fairly interesting. They avoided splitting the party and Hillary wasn’t able to cause any momentum killing screw up by Obama. He is increasingly adept at diverting arrows, although I thought he got off the hook without being asked to explain in greater detail his own views of the new Russian president. I had the uneasy feeling that he may have known as much as Bush did about Mashariff.
For the first time I thought Rachel Madow’s assessment was about as bad as Chris Matthews’. Her statement that the bus in the ditch methapor actually broke down because no one actually votes to drive a bus into a ditch reinforced the fact that she’s never raised a teenager. They frequently make conscious decisions to drive into places and conditions they shouldn’t.
Exactly. If the leaders of both would listen to their citizens once in awhile the planet would be more peaceful!
Crosstimbers, comparing a bus ACCIDENT to a war of choice is ridiculous, don’t you think? I wonder if Rachel rethought her comment? Doubt it.
By the way, for anyone who is interested, I did a post with pics of Maine’s 12th snowstorm of the month of February…
http://whitenoiseinsanity.word…..now-storm/
We are dying for spring up here. Anyone want to share theirs with us? LOL
I really understand Clinton’s response that she always seemed to receive questions first. Watching debate after debate, my family has noticed that Obama sometimes gets the opportunity to say yea, what she said, almost parroting her words and sometimes using the exact phrases she did in her answer. But the stooopid questions that we have heard time after time. Its maddening. With the economy tanking so bad, nothing about what to do or hardly a mention of it except about NAFTA. NAFTA isn’t our biggest problem here.
I’ve been saying for the longest time that Russertt is a cancer on the body politic. He along with his accolytes need to be excised for the health of the Republic. People on liberal/progressives blogs think that the Dems are just going to walk into the WH. The majority of the people in this country do not get their news from the internet, it’s still the MSM and no one wants St. McCain to win than the MSM. They will tar and feather any Democratic nominee in the interest of serving their corporate masters and preserving their pampered and priviledged position in the political pecking order. The American public has historically been known to suffer from ADD and many by Nov. will think that a vote for Obama is a vote for Osama or Willie Horton. Tim Russert and others in the MSM make that leap of logic possible.
Grant in Houston of my blog just posted a link to a MSNBC poll about last night’s debate:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23354735/
Poor Hillary. She didn’t fair too well it appears.
The candidates should just boycott NBC/MSNBC until Russert is removed from the procees much like what they have done to Faux news. Don’t let the newtworks dictate the terms of debate…or just find some dirt on timmah and throw it at him when he asks a stupid question!
I think we are witnessing the ‘final throes’ of the Russert regime in political broadcasting. Obama just passed the one million donor mark (and I’m not in yet!). That’s a lot of votes, a lot of potential viewers, and a lot of clout in the long run. The creeps on teevee got a purchase during the Dukakis campaign, when they discovered their power to ruin a candidacy. They would have done the same to Clinton in 1992 except that Perot mixed up the works in the electoral college. We all know what they did to Gore, Dean and Kerry.
Politics is like war. You can win with a new weapon or strategy, but there’s always a defense, and people learn. Obama’s campaign is learning how to parry the MSM. Russert’s days as a power broker are ending. And that’s what he is. This isn’t news, this is the exercise of power. The thing is, in a business like the media, you don’t want to be on the losing side if you lose big. His bosses know that. His days are numbered.
Barack Obama has had the kitchen sink thrown at him, throwing out his middle name in a negative way, accompanied by a picture of Obama dressed in Somali garb, at the same time being endorsed by Farakhan — it’s called “Got-Cha” politics, which is the worst kind of politics which only tends to divide and incite fear, it’s called divide and conquer.
However, Obama can be of use to America by addressing the need of some to sow divisions and exploit our differences, instead of building on that which unites us, and “The world can use him too, with his reach to the Muslim nations and his middle name making it impossible for the US to walk away from one of the biggest foreign policy blunders in history. A restructuring of this overall policy is due after the demolition of the World Trade Towers. Some people think it’s cool to be cynical. They deride those who show overt respect, admiration, and optimism. Those who still believe they can make a difference. Those who know they have power. This campaign has proven that cruelty is no longer desired as political style in the United States. The people now have a choice. A choice between magnifying the negatives or using the positives. I will say this. Obama has the potential to be one of the greats, but only if the people participate in molding his leadership. That’s the task at hand. He, himself, invites others to recognize his faults not letting them interfere with the work. You can see how the people’s support has molded him already in his quick evolution from weak debating events to the beautiful, strong, elegant, debate he delivered last night..” From: Blogger, J.M., Raging Universe.
We cannot afford to continue to ailenate our allies and friends in the Middle East, to continue to incite hatred and hostility, with no end of wars in sight. There are many leaders with the name Hussein in the Middle East which are our allies such as King Jordan Hussein. America the world is watching.
Hillary Clinton, a consumate actress, represents the old-time party politics, the politics of distort, smear, tear and division. She likes to Fight while Barack likes to Unite. Through this whole campaign, Clinton has been Denounced for being Karl-Rove Republican like which she nows tries to throw off on Camp Obama. We all know who has engaged in a negative campaign. It is about the Past or the Future, that is our Choice!
The broadcast media is not serving the franchise it was granted by the People when they issued licenses. Media consolidation and monopolization, and cross ownership of the media by others corporations has clearly skewed the content of the airwaves. The networks are thinly vieled propaganda arms of the corporate message and the MIC. And this is not simply the fact that these are agendas are promoted in ads, they are part of the content and the slant of the so called public affairs shows.
A serious re-do of the broadcast media and MSM consolidation needs to be right up there on the agenda to reform this nation. The MSM is partially responsible for the dumbing down of America. This must change or we are kaput. And they gave us Bush and almost destroyed this country in 8 short years.
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have enormous respect for each other. They battle like opposing attorneys, each trying to win over the jury. Their supporters would do well to realize that once court is adjourned, the attorneys who were at each others’ throats will often meet for lunch.
Just sayin’
OT this is interesting:
Leadfoot: Sometimes going green hurts more than it helps.
Nobody knows how or why these whiskers grow and nobody knows how to stop them, except through the use of lead solder. Whiskers can start growing in a decade or a year or a day after manufacture. They can grow at up to nine millimeters per year. They grow in any atmosphere including a pure vacuum. They grow in any humidity condition. They just grow. And when they get long enough they either touch another joint, shorting out one or more connections, or they vaporize in a flash, creating a little plasma cloud that can carry for an instant hundreds of amps and literally blow your device to pieces.
Such sudden catastrophic failure could have serious consequences – failure in a nuclear powerplant, in an airplane, radar, online banking, etc – it’s not hard to see that this could be disastrous. The military is particularly worried. And circuit boards made with tin solder cannot be repaired, only replaced.
Yeah, Russert is definitely a problem. But we shouldn’t let Obama off the hook for the Farrakhan issue. It is regrettable that Hillary had to make him take a stand in front of millions of people and finally be definitive about *something*. But that littel tete a tets showed decisively why she is the better presidential material.
I can tell from the way Obama supporters are reacting that they know she landed a blow.
Come on, both of them are intelligent and have mad mistakes in the past. Who hasn’t? Of course we tend to judge someone going forward about their past performance. The nation didn’t do that with Bush or Regan because they wouldn’t be president.
For me the issue is not flip flopping but accountability and when the spotlight is on and you are going for the presidency, how are you conducting yourself NOW. Neither of them are doing a stellar job.
Obama represents hope, and although that is intangible, he seems to have risen much like the American dream and many people think he is closer to his roots and the needs of the people than Clinton, who has been at the top of the heap for decades. And she doesn’t have much to show for having been there.
Obama might not be able to get the wheels of gov going where they need to go, especially if the Rs throw up roadblocks. And they will. And they will regardless of which dem wins. I sense that Obama has invigorated more voters and that is a good thing. I’d give him a shot.
No one could be worse than Bush and I hope that the loser doesn’t just fade but fights for democratic principles in the new regime.
We have a lot of work to do and the election is not even part of that.
I frequently agree with what you have to say,but can’t on this one. When Hillary interrupted the inquesition, it was difficulte to tell what she was trying to do. For a while it appeared that she was going to show party solidarity against bigotry and corner a little glory by reciting her own incident similar to Obama’s situation. Obama listended intently. When it became apparent that she had seen it as a target of opportunity, and thought that “reject” was definitive, as opposed to “denounce”, he immediately smiled. When allowed to speak he pointed out precisely, but causually, that Farrakhan had made no offer of anything to be rejected, but, if she insisted, he would both denounce and reject.
I thought Hillary had leapt a what appeared to be a chance and it had been turned on her. I like her and respect her very much, but I was embarrassed for her. I have been rejected many times, but, to my knowledge, I’ve never been denounced. I would find that highly insulting.
Actually, ‘Barack’ means ‘blessed’, and FWIW, I think it is the same or very similar in Hebrew, but have to check that. The jews and arabs are brothers under the skin,hence all the fighting. That and the Brits mucking around with borders after the breakup of the Ottoman empire. Hussein was the prophet Mohammed’s brother, I think, and his successor. Hence the popularity of both names for boys (but not for teddy bears, no no! Think of the Brit teacher in Sudan.)
I agree it can be asked — the problem is, you don’t have to ask the question like those slanderous emails — and the point is, African Americans like Obama are constantly asked about what other black people say, while it is never couched that way for others.
Is Hillary Clinton asked about what Laura Bush says…or even Barbara Streisand?
Yet every prominent black is supposed — by Timmy’s standards — to be responsible for what another black person says.
This explains the two fellow-commuters talking about Obama being anti-Semitic because he’s a friend of Farrakhan. I figured their reasoning (or lack thereof) as: Obama is a friend of Farrakhan; Farrakhan is anti-Semitic; therefore Obama is anti-Semitic. But I hadn’t heard about Russert’s gotcha then.
I think I can safely say that those two people will never vote for a Democrat, because they believe [nearly] everything they see on TV, and thinking gives them headaches.
The earlier draft make a joke about this, but I figured it was too attenuated to stay…it remained in the summary for a while.