Wednesday, August 27, 2008

quote of the week

From Tuesday's Wonkette, In response to CNN's Leslie Sanchez's moronic comment "Is it the dress or what's in it? Michelle Obama covered the key milestones but the image of her in a cocktail dress left us wondering":

Watching Michelle Obama’s speech last night, you might have been struck by how deeply shameful it is that such an obviously smart and decent person must repeatedly assure the public of her patriotism so that a nation of suspicious and resentful idiots don’t think she’s planning to bomb their local scrapbooking club with a Socialist Black Muslim Virus. Or you might have looked at her dress and thought, well, whatever the f**k Leslie Sanchez was thinking.

God save us from the trivial and shallow pontifications of TV news commentators who look for news where there's none and never mention the news that is actually there. What qualifies these pathetic swindlers for their jobs?

UPDATE: If you were watching the networks, you probably had to listen to pompous pundits and missed the great populist speech of Gov. Brian Schweitzer of Montana. Go Big Sky Country! My dad was from Butte.


SECOND UPDATE (Okay, I know I'm getting out of control and I promise to go back to work after this): You know when you see an ad for a book or a movie that you know is terrible and that you know that nobody liked it, yet still the ad puts out highly truncated quotes from the critics? Like "...fantastic... a great movie..." I always suspect that the original quote must be something like "It was a fantastic waste of time. I was expecting a great movie, but it was crap."

Well, that's what McCain is doing in his new ad (this is via TPM).

The ad's narrator says: "Obama says Iran is a 'tiny' country. 'Doesn't pose a serious threat.' Terrorism? Destroying Israel? Those aren't serious threats?"

Here is the full May 18th Obama quote, as supplied by the McCain press release itself:

"Strong countries and strong Presidents talk to their adversaries. That's what Kennedy did with Khrushchev. That's what Reagan did with Gorbachev. That's what Nixon did with Mao. I mean think about it. Iran, Cuba, Venezuela -- these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don't pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us. And yet we were willing to talk to the Soviet Union at the time when they were saying we're going to wipe you off the planet."

This is not just twisting Obama's words. It is altering the context so dramatically that it utterly changes the meaning. In other words, it is a lie. Can people be so naive to fall for this? Can they?

One thing I wonder -- how can someone be so lazy that they never do research on what a candidate actually says or does, but they still have the energy to go to the poll to vote?

7 comments:

crystal said...

Movie quotes example - heh.

Why do they never say that kind of thing (is it the tux or what's in it) about the guys? :)

Liam said...

Crystal -- isn't that always the case? I do think Gov. Schweitzer's bolo tie got some commentary.

You could tell that Sanchez, who is a Republican hack, was desperate to find something to criticize.

theswain said...

Go Montanans! I'm one!

We talked about the rhetoric of this today, the focus on her dress, etc....t'was a teachable moment. I hope.

crystal said...

There's a post about Gov. Schweizer at America magazine's blog, mentioned his bolo tie :)

Jeff said...

Well, when they're bogged down in two wars, housing prices are plummeting, foreclosures, food prices and energy prices are soaring, the standing of the US in the world is at an all time low, and they have a hot-headed 72-year-old as their candidate, what else can they do but obfuscate the truth and to concentrate on the trivial?

If the Dems can't win this race (and unbelievably, it's possible that they won't), they'll have to blow the party up and start all over from scratch.

cowboyangel said...

Don't be knocking bolo ties. If Bruce Springsteen from New Jersey can wear one, then any of us can.

Liam said...

William -- I would say we are all Bruce Springsteen, but the reality is we are all Pedro Martinez.