Your Fourth Estate at Work, Folks
By dcmediagirl on August 26, 2008 at 9:38 AM in Current Affairs
Jack Cafferty has a role, which is to play the cranky old bastard on CNN, a job he was put on earth to do. Day after day, you can see Wolf Blitzer start getting nervous as Cafferty’s hit time approaches, squirming as he anticipates what zesty bon mots will spill from Cafferty’s maw.
But Cafferty doesn’t just grump away as he reads stupid viewer poll questions, report on the polls’ meaningless results, and read and respond to insipid viewer mail. He also writes a column.
For starters, how about this charming little title?
Beverly “Hillary-billies” come to Denver
To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, here we go again. A Bill-Hill pun twisted to present this accomplished, hard-working, well-educated couple, a former two-term president and a sitting United States Senator educated at Georgetown/Oxford/Yale and Wellesley/Yale, respectively, as a pair of toothless ignorant yokels who had the gall to rise above their station. And unlike the demented cries of racism following McCain’s Paris Hilton ad on the part of the in the tank pundit class, now we’re seeing that same punditry and members of the Fourth Estate mercilessly dogpile on President Bill and Senator Hillary for about the millionth time. Who among their number will point out the hypocrisy, cruelty and double standards exhibited by colleagues? Not many. But read to the end and you’ll find that not ALL is lost.
Following a series of cheap shots, Cafferty writes:
Bill Clinton has barely been polite. He couldn’t even bring himself to say he thought Obama is qualified to be president.
Wow. The nerve of Bill Clinton to think his wife is more qualified than Obama. The nerve of Bill Clinton to not be able to choke out the words “I think Obama is qualified”. Message to Cafferty: Maybe Bill Clinton doesn’t think Obama is qualified. Maybe others agree that Obama isn’t qualified.
And then:
Politico.com reports the former president wanted to talk about the economy under President Bush compared to his accomplishments during his term in office. The theme for Wednesday night is “Securing America for the 21st Century.” It seems Bill Clinton is forever more interested in reminding us of what a charming guy he was while in office than in acting like one of the leaders of his party and trying to get his party into the White House.
Kind of sad, really.
So let me get this straight. Bill Clinton was asked to speak about securing America in this century. He agreed. He wants to contrast his record with that of the loathsome George W. Bush and the diabolical Cheney. Perhaps he wants to remind the delegates of how good the country had it when he was president (something many in the party need to be reminded of, particularly the drunk on Koolaid-unhinged ones who labeled this man a racist). And this Cafferty characterizes as “sad”.
Kind of a bastard, really.
Lastly, this:
Yet, Obama’s people have gone out of their way to accommodate the Clintons this week in the hopes of achieving party unity. Obama told reporters on Monday that former President Clinton could speak about anything he likes.
Some of Hillary Clinton’s supporters had threatened to disrupt the proceedings if their candidate wasn’t shown the proper amount of respect. They’re called PUMAs, an acronym for “Party Unity My Ass.” They appear to be a humorless lot who cannot come to terms with the fact that the country didn’t want Hillary Clinton to be president. So they have been throwing a hissy fit ever since the primaries ended.
Yes, it’s those Hillary Harridans again! And to review: 18 million voters wanted Hillary Clinton to be president. She wasn’t Mike Huckabee, or Mitt Romney – or Joe Biden for that matter. She was a strong, viable candidate with wide support. And Jack? Maybe you missed the memo about Michigan and Florida (don’t worry – lots of other people in the MSM missed it too). Maybe it doesn’t bother you that the “coverage” your colleagues saw fit to present was biased, sexist, sophomoric and – come to think of it – in line with this tedious, ignorant column. Maybe you don’t think it’s out of line for party leaders to meddle in the presidential primary process by publicly calling for a viable candidate to drop out of the race when the final contest is months away ( I’d love to see what would happen if Hillary Clinton were to go into Vermont or Connecticut during Leahy and Dodd’s primary runs and insist that they get out immediately. It would be the end of days). And maybe you don’t see the problem with the Democratic Party and their resident Clown College, the Credentials Committee, dragging their feet on Florida and Michigan and awarding delegates to a candidate who not only hadn’t won them fair and square but had not campaigned in the states in question. If this travesty had impacted the candidacy of anyone other than Hillary Clinton you’d be hearing screams of “banana republic”. But if it’s done to Hillary Clinton it’s fair game.
A tiny ray of light: On today’s Morning Joe, Scarborough was rude enough to point out that the Obama people haven’t exactly bent over backwards to reach out to Hillary supporters and that maybe they should do so. Maybe MSNBC will revoke his hall pass for uttering such heresy.
, the basis for the Best Motion Picture Nominee (Golden Globes) starring Brad Pitt.
, the novel by John Le Carre, a new motion picture starring Gary Oldman and Colin Firth.
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.by David Fredosso who wrote 2008's 
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