The "scandal of the day" is the G.O.P. and it's exceptionally stupid operatives. I can't believe that the Party of Lincoln has evolved to this state of incompetence. Oh, wait, yes I can. Nauseating...

Given that Fox News didn't care on Friday, but cares about little else today, what do you want to bet that some Republican National Committee staffers, after strategizing over the weekend, sent out a memo this morning to Fox News, encouraging them to hit this "story" as the "scandal" of the day?

But who gonna take the other side of the bet: that the RNC didn't "strateragize" over the weekend. That would be like betting that the sun doesn't rise tomorrow.

It does raise the question of whether Republican personalities really believe that their audience is as stupid as it would have to be to believe what the personalities are saying. I haven't given up on the hope that a rational, responsible conservative still exists, but it sure has been a long time since I've seen one on television.

And it's always amazing to me how protective wingers are of their self-serving distortions of these things.

And by "their", I of course mean "those of their favorite media personality who tells them what to think".

This kind of "Obama secretly hates America" stuff was absurd back during the campaign, but now? Come off it, Fox. Do you really think you're going to position yourself as more American than the president? He's the goddamn president! Only two people on this planet can credibly claim to be more American, and more emblematic of American ideals, than the president: Springsteen and Captain America. Hannity, you'll note, is neither.

Agree with his policies or don't, but if your plan is to paint yourself as more American than the American president, then your plan is stupid, your network is stupid, and your intelligence is stupid.

Is the problem that they do this, or that we don't?

"Given that Fox News didn't care on Friday, but cares about little else today, what do you want to bet that some Republican National Committee staffers, after strategizing over the weekend, sent out a memo this morning to Fox News, encouraging them to hit this "story" as the "scandal" of the day?"

From a republican perspective:

You commie, socialist, fascists seem to be opposed to 'freedom of speech'!

We reserve the right to take anything Obama says in a speech out of context and raise hell about it.

Isn't that what freedom of speech means?

I'm guessing they're still working on finding out what gift Obama gave the PM of Turkey.

Spanky:

You can take it to the bank. Their constituency is every bit as stupid as their moronic "reasoning" would suggest. I spend eight hours a day surrounded by the proof, in the form of agitated myna birds.

I don't think that the right can demand jingoism because I also don't think that they can define it.

Or patriotism, for that matter,
-Z

I'd say Ailes and Rove sent out the marching orders on this one.

You ain't heard nothing yet. This a.m., in the news conference preceeding Obama's speech to the Turkish parliament, part of one of his answers was to the effect that just as America does not consider itself a Christian nation, Turkey did not consider itself a Muslim nation.

For my part, I see that as reasonably accurate, both as a matter of political theory and of history. But in certain quarters, the idea that America is not a Christian nation is probably going to set off the next explosion of the right-wing sound machine.

To echo many of the prior posts, Fox News and the GOP are counting on the fact that 25% of American public are STUPID BEYOND BELIEF.

Although it won't maintain GOP viability, I imagine that it keeps Fox's network ratings afloat.

Brings to mind thoughts of Dr. Johnson and refuges for scoundrels.

Still, in a very real sense Obama was not criticizing our America, but he was criticizing their (Fox and the right wing's) America; the one that tortures indiscriminately, blunders blindly into disastrous foreign conflicts,and opposes both the rule of law and and of reason.

When does the right not demand jingoism?

bdop:

I think it begs the question as to at what point the distinction between stupidity and gullibility vanishes completely.

One of President Obama's greatest strengths is the ability to forge alliances between former adversaries and to bring enemies together by putting himself in his opponent's shoes. He does that naturally in almost every speech he gives. His basic strategy is to concede an adversary's complaint against either him, his party or his country in order to build trust so that he can exact a more important concession or agreement later on. His speech on race was masterful, for example, because he articulated the angst that certain white males have against minorities almost better than they could have articulated it themselves -- but he did it in the service of achieving greater racial harmony later.

Smear artists like Hannity realize that Obama's natural gift for building alliances in this way offers them a target rich environment for scoring an endless number of cheap partisan points against Obama so long as they quote the opening concession without including the follow up demand for agreement. Hannity knows that he can score against Obama if he only quotes the President as admitting that, yes, America has been arrogant and rude without mentioning that the President also said America's critics have been over the top as well -- or that the whole point of the speech was to put these bad feelings behind us so that we can get on with better relations now, built on a higher level of trust gained through openness and honesty.

Listening to Hannity you would think it was in America's interest to agitate the whole world into chanting "Down with USA!. But the the days when America could base its foreign policy entirely on intimidating nations into being our "friend," or bullying allies into going our way, are over. Obama understands this even if Hannity and the rest of the right wing doesn't.

I knew they would try something in this vein the minute I heard Obama, in one of his early speeches at the G20, refer to America and our allies as "peers" instead of America being the bestest country evar, ruler of all the others!

To Hannity/insanity:

Please show me where Obama was wrong in his comments. Didn't our Congress change french fries to freedom fries in its cafeteria? Didn't some of our pundits call the French "cheese eating surrender monkeys"? Didn't Rumsfeld distinguish between "old Europe" and "new Europe"?

I don't remember any of these people (with the possible exception of Robin Hayes, the Congressman from NC who created "freedom fries" and then became an Iraq war critic) apologizing for their comments. I'm glad Obama can admit we were wrong and derisive.

Spanky said:
"It does raise the question of whether Republican personalities really believe that their audience is as stupid as it would have to be to believe what the personalities are saying. I haven't given up on the hope that a rational, responsible conservative still exists, but it sure has been a long time since I've seen one on television."

I'm reminded of Hal Crowther's opinion on this subject:

"Democrats pretend to be as smart as they can because they think many of their target voters are intelligent and discriminating, while Republicans pretend to be as dumb as they can because they think most of their base is even dumber."

It's clear what the conservative strategy going forward will be. First, ratings at FOX and talk radio are way up. That is not an indication of public dissatisfaction with Obama, who still has strong favorabilities. It is simply an indication that the hard core right wingers are circling the wagons. Those running the conservative movement know that they have a captive media audience -- what experts call an "informational enclave." Within their own media environment conservatives have complete control over the prevailing narrative. And the narrative they have created is that Obama is a left-wing extremist who hides his socialist/communist agenda underneath a soothing and dishonest rhetoric of consensus and bi-partisanship. The American people aren't fooled, They recognize Obama's extremist. And even though the left-wing media says Obama has strong support in the polls, conservatives know the truth that Obama is a disaster who must be opposed as if he was a dictator. Conservatives have hunkered down for the long haul. In their view they haven't lost at all. In fact, thanks to Obama conservatives are the ones really on the march, even as they've walled themselves in their castles, safe behind their moats as they've pulled up the drawbridges behind them.

I don't think it matters when they 'strategerized' about this. I think they planned to go nuts over this issue on Monday. Nobody tries to make news on Friday. They want to start the controversy on Monday, so they can try to grab the entire week's news cycle. They're trying to win the week; if they had made a big thing about it on Friday, all they would have won would have been Friday.

Who needs drudge when we have washingtonmonthly to amplify and disseminate right wing talking points.

Grinning cat:

You really see this discussion thread "amplifying and disseminating" right-wing talking points?

Really?

I hope the FBI is keeping tapes of Fox News.

The vile they spew is getting scary.

We need to counter this awful "news" source with reason, compassion, and veracity.

Only the most absurd among us would ever take the word of Rove or Hannity or the rest of their lowbrow ilk. Their righteous babblings are so easily shot down. It's as simple as actually reading what Obama said. They are marginalizing themselves, and making me positively giddy as they do so.

Oh, and has anyone seen Limbaugh talking about Gordon Brown and his love for Obama. I am not making this up - Limbaugh actually said that if Gordon Brown doesn't stop "slobbering" over Obama, Obama would "give him anal poisoning." Now, if that doesn't shake the dust from the rafters of those who would laud Limbaugh as a man to be taken seriously, truly, nothing will. What a bunch of idiots.

They're trying to shout over the fact that they have lauded as a hero the hate-monger that incited the Pittburgh shooter to kill cops:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09095/960750-53.stm

Alex Jones is a frequent guest on Fux News, where he is typically called things like A Great American...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZMdA06xbcU

Reminds me of the run up to the Iraq war when the wing nuts were telling the joke: How many Frenchman does it take to defend Paris? When in response to the punch line I brought up the Battle of the Marne in WWI and the defense of the Paris Commune against the Prussians they would just stare at me blankly. Obama was on to something when he wondered whether the right wing is "proud to be ignorant."

Fox news, "fair and balanced in making sh&t up"

FoxNews personalities and Republican operatives are not sane! They fail to realize their screeds and whining come across as toddlers who have soiled their diapers,and now wonder why no one wants to play with them. They are, and have been, stinking up the whole place, and so, they are not of the right mind to determine who among us loves our country more that the rest! -Kevo

When is the press going to do an expose on the inability of the conservatives to recognize that America can do anything wrong? This total blindness to America's mistakes and misdeeds creates a population of sheeple perfectly willing to follow, unquestioningly, even the most ignorant and misguided leaders (W and Palin, for instance). A population incapable of introspection, skepticism or critical thought should not be permitted near a voting booth.

You know, every time I flip past FAUX News, I see their lips moving...but all I can hear is "WAAAAH! WAAAAAAAAAAH! WAAAH!"

Didn't our Congress change french fries to freedom fries in its cafeteria? Didn't some of our pundits call the French "cheese eating surrender monkeys"? Didn't Rumsfeld distinguish between "old Europe" and "new Europe"?

And yet, they feel they weren't arrogant and dismissive? How these people manage to prove the very accusation against them, even as they try to decry it, is incredible.

I can't understand why everybody is so upset about this man's rhetoric about the US when he's not even an american citizen.

royalblue_tom: "Didn't some of our pundits call the French 'cheese eating surrender monkeys'?"

Yeah, well, that was a mistake, okay? They meant to say "pathetic wine-swilling sodomites" ...

retr2327: "But in certain quarters, the idea that America is not a Christian nation is probably going to set off the next explosion of the right-wing sound machine."

"Oh, where are my smelling salts? I - I think I shall faint!"
- Aunt Pittypat Hamilton (Laura Hope Crews), Gone With the Wind (1939)

The leaders of the conservative movement know that within their own right wing universe they completely "control the narrative." Rove and others can write whatever script they want because they have a powerful media that they control to broadcast it without competition, and they know that for a small core following that narrative will be the dominant view of reality. It is not enough to win an election at this point, but I'm guessing that conservatives think it will form the core of an effective and loyal insurrgency that might just gain traction should conditions deteriorate. Despite these loses, Rove and others are still sticking with their energize the base strategy instead of one geared to reaching beyond the base to win over moderates. And the right wing narrative and worldview is almost impossible to penatrate with alternative media or messages. It is a loyal and committed following convinced of the apocalyptic nature of the current administration.

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