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[UPDATES] Hillary Arrives in Asia! + Open Thread

By SusanUnPC on February 16, 2009 at 2:28 PM in Andrea Mitchell, MSNBC, Morning Joe, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, State Department

NOTE: Two stories ABOVE, SEE THE CNN COVERAGE of Hillary’s trip with two videos!

UPDATE #2 TOMORROW at 1 p.m. ET, Andrea Mitchell interviews Hillary Clinton for the HOUR on MSNBC. (And I’m still lookin for the Robert Baer interview re Hillary’s smart views on North Korea, with which the old spymaster Baer agrees!)

********************************

OF NOTE: Andrea Mitchell is accompanying Hillary Clinton on her four-country journey of Asia, and will be holding special daily reports — aired at (I think) 1100 a.m. PT / 2:00 p.m. ET — I say “I think” because MSNBC, last week in its promos, failed to provide the precise time. (Right now I’m listening to an interview from an hour ago of Andrea Mitchell with Bob Baer on Hillary’s comments aboard the plane regarding North Korea, and Bob Baer is agreeing with Hillary’s stated assessments of North Korea’s threat, as conveyed to Baer by Mitchell. When that video is up, I’ll post it.) But here ARE THREE earlier reports via Morning Joe:


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Grab your barf bag! NEXT UP, Carl Bernstein’s analysis of Hillary, but that goes on, in the NEXT video, into a far more thoughtful discussion of the challenges that the Obama administration faces! So do NOT miss the videos below (despite Carl Bernstein!) and another video with former WaPo international reporter Robin Wright, Al Hunt, and others:


Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

“BARACK OBAMA IS SHOWING MASTERFUL LEADERSHIP” ???? GIVE ME A BREAK, CARL!!! You burned out in the early 1970s, apparently, as an astute journalist.

HERE’s another discussion with Robin Wright, Al Hunt, et al:


Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

What else is going on in the world?

  • beebop

    Carl Bernstein is in HUGE financial trouble. He needs the gigs. I am surprised that he can afford airfare. He is currently living off of the generosity of friends. He has blown through more money than Mickey Rourke.

    Andrea Mitchell? Sorry. Won’t watch her. Her treatment of HRC was inexcusable. One question …. is an Afghan hound groomer missing from the post Westminster dog show hoopla? Or is Andrea just traveling without her “handler?” hahahahahahahahaha

    • AlexisM

      I won’t watch Andrea Mitchell ever, ever, ever and look at who her husband is. Two big losers IMO.

      • http://noquarterusa.net/ SusanUnPC

        Well, if i dare say so, you’re going to be missing some very important coverage of Hillary since Mitchell is doing a great job of covering Hillary.

        But to each his / her own.

        I’m going to feature her reports daily because she is offering a big window into what Hillary will be doing every day of her trip.

        I’ll try to find time to make it over to CNN too, to see what they’re doing, and will post those videos as well…. in a while …. it’s been a wildly busy day. I saw these videos / i posted them / i hope you’ll enjoy them and the time it took!

        • beebop

          Susan …. appreciate you for doing this for one and all. I don’t trust one word that comes out of AM’s mouth. I will have to hear the news from sources who were more supportive of HRC during her run for the presidency. Oddly enough that was Fox News. When the media has redeemed itself and apologized for the hoax of the selection season just completed, I will return to the stations that I once treasured.

        • AlexisM

          Susan…So sorry. No disrespect to all of your hard work. I just don’t love this woman and she’s difficult for me to watch. Thank you for all the time you spend on this stuff and I look forward to the other videos too.

        • Liberty Belle not for Obama

          Susan – Thanks for doing this, too. Surprise NPR bothered to do a lead off story on HRC’s trip on the news this a.m., but she’d granted them an interview earlier. You know how it goes – the MSM don’t want Hillary to upstage Obama.

          • trixta

            “[The] MSM don’t want Hillary to upstage Obama.”

            That about sums it up.

            • Jackarooty

              Yeah, but the BIG DAWG is making the rounds! He was on Today this morning and he’s on Larry tomorrow night.

              Bwahahahaha!

        • gonzotx

          No one else is covering Hillary? I think probably many are and I would not and will not waste my time with the witch Mitchell..

      • barry bums a ciggie

        As much as I love Hillary, I will get my fix about her elsewhere and not with the likes of MSNBC. Andrea and her hubby, two big losers indeed.

    • trixta

      Yeah right, the reason Obama decided to run for Prez is because “the Senate isn’t what it used to be.” Give me a break! Obama is an opportunist who doesn’t mind being a puppet president.

      I’m more convinced than ever that he was installed ultimately by Wall Street to privatize Social Security and to continue GWB’s perpetual war policy and to expand on FISA. Otherwise, his presidency just doesn’t make any sense.

  • Seattle Moss

    Grab your barf bag indeed!
    Bernstein has been out in the wilderness for years. Only brought back to destroy Hillary in the primary.
    What a drunk and a disgrace.

    300 million people in this country and they can’t find anyone better than Bernstein

    • TeakwoodKite

      I have always wondered what he was doing in Italy during that time.

  • Andy

    Andrea Mitchell is always looking for ways to insert sth. negative about HRC.
    She mentioned twice that HRC addressing the economic and financial global
    crisis in Japan (which is indeed part of HRC portfolio) “might not sit well with teh Treasury” . Andrea Mitchell said it twice. Also when Halperin asked her about the Japanese excitment of having HRC there she answered that it quickly and immediately went into detail to describe the (her word) “Obama-mania” …. I really despise Andrea Mitchell…

    I couldn’t stomach trying to watch the second video…

    • Prem

      Her comments about HRC moving in on Geithner’s turf, twice, caught my attention big time, too. I thought why is she stirring that up now—guess she can’t stand Hillary getting some good, positive press coverage compared to all the negativity she received during the primaries. So glad that Mark Halperin changed the subject to the Japanese being excited to have her, then AM went back to comment on how BHO’s speeches have been so widely distributed—more so than any other president’s speeches and then they are going to do that with his Feb. 24th “state of the union,” speech. Could barely finish watching this, but wanted to cause I wanted more news on Hillary!

      Thanks for your good work updating us—although still somewhat painful to hear the continued back-stabbing, and undermining of HRC’s efforts. I just think AM is jealous of HRC and it makes me sad as another woman to see this.

  • bert

    BARACK OBAMA IS SHOWING MASTERFUL LEADERSHIP????

    That’s the exact spot I turned the video off. I already have a headache today. Why push it any further.

  • Andy

    SusanUnPC: The spam filters ate my comment a few minutes ago….

    • Andy

      Thanks for rescuing it! I can see it above now.

      • http://americanpumainitaly.blogspot.com/ American Girl in Italy

        welcome!

        • Andy

          Ah! Thank you AIG then !!

          • Andy

            Make that AGI (not AIG…jeez…sorry).

            The video of HRC arriving in Japan made so proud of her….

            • http://americanpumainitaly.blogspot.com/ American Girl in Italy

              are you calling me a failed insurance group?
              haha

              • Andy

                ROFLOL !!! Absolutely not… xoxox

  • HARP

    SCREENING OBAMA :

    The White House is looking to install a small video or computer screen into the podium used by the president for press conferences and events in the White House. “It would make it easier for the comms guys to pass along information without being obvious about it,” says the adviser.

    The screen would indicate whom to call on, seat placement for journalists, pass along notes or points to hit, and so forth, says the adviser.

    http://spectator.org/archives/2009/02/16/in-all-fairness

    • candymarl

      Transparency flies in and out the window!

      • TeakwoodKite

        Obama can only paint by numbers candymarl, I wouldn’t be too upset about it. We all know BO couldn’t live without a teleprompter or technical assistance when it comes to knowing where his ass is.

    • oowawa

      Well, until they have the technology to implant a chip into O’s brain, I guess this will have to do.

      • Animal control

        I think the implant is in place and uhh, you know , hu mal functioning.

    • beebop

      well … at least they can give him some jesus-like slight of hand tricks to utterly charm the masses.

    • Andy

      Ha! Obama cannot talk without a cue (from the “communication guys”) … Amazing….. Day after day he proves he is just an actor playing POTUS…

      • margarita

        I think it’s kind of like a ventriloquist and his dummy.

        • trixta

          Yeah, BO sits on Lincoln’s lap —but only utters “uh”.

          (You can also substitute “Lincoln” for JFK, MLK, Reagan, etc.”

        • Andy

          yeah! I like that analogy margarita.

      • Baba Rum Raisin

        Worked for Reagan didn’t it?

        I want to know how Pelosi and Reid settle the question of Whose Turn it is to Stick his/her Hand into the Whole in Obama’s Back Today?

    • pm317

      our very own (euphemistically called) autocue expert aka teleprompter king. There is really something very wrong here when people dub him the most eloquent, or the most articulate or a fine orator.

    • Baba Rum Raisin

      Are you woofing me?

      Clown Obama is so damned dumb that they have to feed him the data via video? Can’t remember or identify the WH Press Corps?

      Leader of the Free World. (And has Michelle’s permission to say so!)

  • Scranton4Hillary

    Ditto Bert. Jealousy of Hillary Clinton is despicable. Andrea Mitchell has always been a supreme yawn.

  • HARP

    Trade War coming:

    Canada is the number 1 trading partner with the US. America sells more steel to Canada than Canada sells to the US. And yet the House bill, written secretly by Nancy Pelosi, included the “Buy America” mandate, and Congressman Jim Oberstar was adamant that it must survive the conference. It did.

    Great idea! Start a trade war with our Number One trading partner! That’s just what we need to stave off boredom about the economic crisis engulfing the planet.

    As John Batchelor has just penned the latest on the Buy America mess, one must ask:

    Has Congress never heard of NAFTA? How could they be that stupid not to exclude Canada from the Buy America language, which is stupid to begin with?

    What’s Obama going to do when he arrives in Ottawa on Thursday? Tell Harper behind closed doors, ‘We don’t mean it?’

    Canada’s unions have already called for a tit-for-tat Buy Canada mandate.

    http://therealbarackobama.wordpress.com/

    • TeakwoodKite

      What’s Obama going to do when he arrives in Ottawa on Thursday? Tell Harper behind closed doors, ‘We don’t mean it?’

      Care to make a wager Harp that you have a winner? I never bet the house but in this case…

  • Diana L. C.

    The comment I liked most was the one about Hillary’s and Bill’s desire to serve. The discussion about how useless Congress is caused me pause. I think it’s a good one to pursue. I’d like one of our excellent writers to discuss that more thoroughly. If is is useless, I still don’t give O a pass for not doing his Senate service really.

  • Peggy Sue

    Well, yes. The “masterful leadership” meme is tiresome, but Berstein gives HRC her due at the end of the piece. Unlike Andrea Mitchell, who quickly changes the focus to Obama mania [and with little subtlety, I might add].

    But I enjoyed the clips and Robin Wright’s comments on the Middle East [she has amazing insights into the area and a vast reservoir of history she often dips into].

    I’m looking forward to more updates on Hillary’s trip. Makes me so proud.

    • beebop

      ABC is showing her … Doesn’t she look presidential? Smiling and reassuring instead of scaring the crap out of people?

  • Peggy Sue

    Susan, I’ve been swallowed by the spam filter again.

  • Birdy

    For the open thread portion:

    Four Tennessee state representatives, all Republicans, have signed up to be plaintiffs in a lawsuit against President Barack Obama, aimed at forcing him to prove he is a United States citizen by coughing up his birth certificate.

    Tennessee Reps. Eric Swafford, Stacey Campfield, Glen Casada and Frank Nicely.

    rep.stacey.campfield@capitol.tn.gov
    rep.eric.swafford@capitol.tn.gov
    rep.frank.niceley@capitol.tn.gov
    rep.glen.casada@capitol.tn.gov

  • PYW

    Andrea M. is an idiot. Like any comments Hillary makes about economic issues wouldn’t have been okayed by the administration first. Doe she really think Hillary would say something that would annoy the Treasury Department? Lord, the MSM is full of dumb shits.

  • guava

    This former Daily Kos member just died MYSTERIOUSLY.
    Look at his posts, and be afraid. Be very afraid.
    http://www.davefromqueens.com/

    • Strawberry

      My God David’s dead? How? And that story about daily KOS being slowy strangled to death by a group of bully posters…not that it doesn’t please me a little to see KOS is getting a bit of his own medicine. But that seems to be happening all over the blogs these days. You should send the link to Larry and Susan.

      • beebop

        Welcome to our world. It couldn’t happen to a nicer group of thugs.

        • Strawberry

          beebop, read the last two of his diaries. What better way to shut down a blog but from the inside.

          • beebop

            I was reading at the link. I have to be honest. I was much more likely to go to Huffingpoo than DK only because of the variety of people who posted there. The people at DK were particularly nasty and probama. And I saw the word c*nt more at DK than elsewhere ….

            • AlexisM

              I’m confused…are you saying that someone killed that guy? I’ve never been to the Daily Kook thank God.

              • beebop

                I think it was literary death ….

            • Strawberry

              I had to stop going there after I was called a racist. All I said was “No Dem on Dem violence.” Oh and C*#t as well. This was when Edwards just started his run. As far as Huffy Poo Place, too much fluff and stuff. If I want to know about self absorbed Hollywood types I’ll move back home. But I did love it when Henry Rollins posted there….emmmmmm, Henry Rollins. He wrote a nasty anti Obama rant saying Obama was not a rock star so quit calling him one and POOF…never to be heard from again.

              • beebop

                I agree about the hollywood crap, but there were other voices you never hear … 9/11 voices, etc. There were people who bought the baloney and sadly, people like Jane Smiley who became unrecognizable when they lost their ability to reason or see the falicy in logic. I am an author junky.

                • Strawberry

                  True…it was freaky to see so many people you thought you knew through their writings go over the edge. It was like something was slipped into their Evian. There’s a Psych. doctrate paper in there somewhere.

  • AlexisM

    http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/8491

    All time great article “Obama’s Revenge.” Pretty much sums up why we are getting screwed.

    • beebop

      Sounds like she took her talking points from the threads here.

      • AlexisM

        LOL beebop…she stole our literary masterpieces?

  • AlexisM

    Hey, here’s a great poll….

    Do you think President Obama will keep your family as safe from terrorists as George W. Bush did?

    No

    87 %

    Yes

    11 %

    No Answer

    2 %

    Looks like 87% of those polled (like me) think Obama will get us blown off the planet!

  • basil

    I don’t know what happened to my post.

    (Maybe the spam filter didn’t like the way I changed the first initiail of AM’s last name from M to B?)

    Anyway, while I am delighted some of the enemy-press are reporting positive news about HRC, I can’t stand AM.

    She did some of the nastiest, cattiest, most vindictive reporting of HRC during the primaries and I sinceerely hope she gets a bad case of ******* and *******. (fill-in-the-blank)

  • TeakwoodKite

    Open thread;

    Mr. Johnson, might you comment on the “deal” Pakistan struck with the “taliban” in the Swat Valley region?

    The Pakistan government on Monday signed a deal with Maulana Sufi Mohammad to enforce sharia law in a northwestern region, hailing the agreement as a precursor for peace in the troubled area.

    .
    With the string of missiles headed into northern Pakistan are the Pakistanis’ making a deal to say to cast off the region to the US? (ie Pakistan does not wish to offend certain elements in the intelligence power grid, domestically and.)
    After all, firing missiles into Pakistan can not happen with out some tacit approval or some might consider it an act of war… How will this be dealt in terms of Us foreign policy and Obama? Will SOS Clinton have input? Holbroke stated he learned of it on the plane to the region, which strikes me as somewhat uninformed for a man with his background.
    This type of situation is prime real estate to the certain factions of the ISI.
    —-
    I am wondering if India has any issue with Waziristan and it’s effect on the Kashmir…
    —-
    Is this some sort of Deja Vu with the circumstances for Pakistan making deals with these elements only to get burned…again? (Read the USA foreign policy)
    —-
    Is it of concern you that militant Wahabism just gained a stronger foot hold the region?

    Contrast that with the Pakistanis requesting 4.5 billion from the IMF, while India is increasing her defense budget by 35%

    Am I wrong to think things are getting complicated?

  • TeakwoodKite

    In an address to the nation on January 2, 2008, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf said that he believed Maulana Fazlullah and Baitullah Mehsud were prime suspects in the assassination of Bhutto.

    .

    So last November he declares an Emergency and send Paki troops in…now they “sign” a deal with a guy who is a prime suspect Bhutto’s assassination? Strange.

  • TeakwoodKite

    BO, according to the news ,

    will have several options before him,” Gates told reporters, referring to the US-led effort to stabilize Afghanistan over the past seven years.

    .

    If I recall, there was an escalation in violence in Afganistan after the first deal Musharif did with these folks.

    Doesn’t this directly effect the U.S. force protection elements in Afgahnistan?