Cokie Roberts speaks! Too bad Obama wasn't in the military.
Let me give Joe Klein an example of why we are appalled by the insulated Beltway Villagers. Here's some typical Cokie Roberts trivial conventional wisdom that so infuriates the liberal blogosphere on NPR (h/t C&Ler Melissa):
INSKEEP: And you mentioned Yemen because this Nigerian suspect had a trip to Yemen in his past. There were other seeming warning signs before he boarded a plane and was stopped really just by incompetence and by the passengers. Is this mainly a political problem for the president or could this lead to changes in policy?
ROBERTS: Well, it's always politically difficult for Democrats when they are dealing with an issue like terrorism. It remained the Republican's only winning issue through most of President Bush's second term, and it's a particular problem for a Democrat who hasn't served in the military. But the policy problem is that it takes up a great deal of the administration's time, and will from here on out - particularly when the Senate Intelligence Committee starts hearings in a couple of weeks.
Here you have it. So sayeth Cokie, queen of the gasbags. All Democrats are weak, weak, weak on national security. It's fine with Cokie and the Villagers that most of the Bush and Cheney team refused to serve in the military when they had the chance, but during the Bush years the Villagers never questioned Republicans over their military experience or commitment to national security. Yet, it's just Jim Dandy to question a Dem's military creds.
When we were hit with 9/11, did the media or Democrats in Congress ever go on the air and, as a party, attack Bush and Cheney? They did not. Now of course, Republicans are fighting with each other to be first in line with as many insults as they can muster up to attack a Democratic president for his supposed national-security weakness. And Cokie Roberts gets to help push this old false narrative to the American people. Does Cokie remember how John Kerry was savagely attacked for actually serving in the military -- and receiving a Purple Heart -- by Fox News and the Swift Boaters?
If Cokie ventured off the set of This Week for a little bit, she would see Jim DeMint and his cronies behaving almost like traitors to America.
That hasn't stopped DeMint from actively doing everything he could to facilitate a national security catastrophe on Obama's watch, a catastrophe Republicans could use against Democrats in elections. He has put a hold on the confirmation of Erroll Southers, a widely admired anti-terrorism expert, until he comes out against unionizing TSA employees.
Bob Somerby has more background on Cokie in his archives too.
Like the guy who couldn't fly a plane straight, and the drunk who kept Alabama safe from the Viet Cong, or so his campaign manager and cabal swear up and down he did.
That 9-11 happened on the Republicans watch.
So I created a 9-11 happened on the Republicans wristWATCH.
The myth of Republican party strength on national defense, national security and terrorism EXPLODED on the very plane that hit the world trade center on 9-11-2001 and died along with those passengers.
and for that matter you can't say Bush served either unless you consider being AWOL and getting drunk a great service to our country.
Argument dispelled
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
Methinks that in Bush's case, getting drunk and going AWOL *was* doing our country a great service.
Actually, on further consideration, since he was doing those same two things when he was the presidunce, and things didn't go that great, I could be wrong...
while in the White House, then I go with your first choice. Had he stayed an alcoholic, he'd never have run for President, and we'd all have been spared a lot of grief.
They just don't come any more clueless than Cokie. Unlike Andrea Mitchell, she never had any journalistic chops or credentials to begin with. Neither one of them belong on TV. Cokie never did.
Was Bush in the military? Well, sort of if you consider what he did while in to be "in the military". And he did such a bang-up job of letting the dozen or so terrorist attacks happen on our soil during his eight years.
the only time bush would have been
concerned about any terrorist attack
on U S soil, is if the attack directly
was toward his personal property.
bush did and does not care what happened/s
to America.
Did Cokie major in "saying ignorant shit" in college? I mean, Jesus, she can't just think this stuff off the cuff, she has to be trained in it to be that fu*king perfect.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
Cokie has had to work really hard at being this bad. In the 80s and part of the 90s, she was a fine journalist for NPR. One of their best in my opinion. But she sold out at some point, perhaps when she started her gigs on TV as well as NPR, or maybe she just got tired of the low wages at NPR...
In any case, her transformation to sayer-of-ignorant-shit was deliberate.
I was in the military and military service doesn't teach you jack about dealing with terrorist threats.
It teaches you to simultaneously turn into Jack Bauer and piss yourself at every opportunity, from what the MSM pundits are asking of Obama.
We supposed to get popcorn or something?
Or is there a strategy in attacking Cokie the Cookie Girl or something?
and wait for the Gubbermint to do everything for me. The TV people too!
Sheesh
What do you mean "almost like traitors"?
Mickey: "It was an epiphany. Do you know what an epipany is?"
Keoni: "NOT NOW MICKEY!"
I understand what Cokie means. I know personally I felt so much safer when I saw bush strutting around on an aircraft carrier wearing his flight suit from wardrobe. If only President Obama was able to stage some production like that I'm sure Cokie, Demint and the other howling goofs would feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
That kind of thing just pumps his 'nads.
Barack Obama: Change we can only imagine
Imagine what seeing Obama in a flight suit would do to Chris. He would have a tingle going up his leg and right into his little soldier. I would expect that little soldier to salute. Cokie on the other hand might think the President looked a little too exotic to be wearing an American military flight suit.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
Only if it was Viagra day...
Barack Obama: Change we can only imagine
Darn, no tingle up the leg?
(none for me anyway)
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
And they faulted Al Gore's, General Clarke, and John Kerry's actual wartime experience.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Cheney's five deferments or Bush's daddy getting him into the National Guard. Most people and particularly officers had to serve active duty prior to National Guard service but not Bush.
Barack Obama: Change we can only imagine
"It (terrorism) remained the Republican's only winning issue through most of President Bush's second term"
Really? Terrorism was a "winning" issue?
No reason to question that, eh?
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
Cokie Roberts could be a villager poster child. She sums up the whole, ridiculous head.
Barack Obama: Change we can only imagine
is what it really is
"It (terrorism) remained the Republican's only winning issue through most of President Bush's second term"
...Those are the words of an insane person. Anyone who actually thinks that should not be on television spewing it ...
I'm Boycotting NewsCorp! Heres what not to buy: http://www.cjr.org/resources/index.php?c=news...
I wasn't aware that Cokie Roberts had done a term of service in the military. I mean, she must have, because otherwise her statement would be on of appalling hypocrisy.
"The Good and Great Must Ever Shun, That Reckless and Abandoned One
Who Stoops to Perpetrate a Pun," Lewis Carroll, 'The Three Voices.'
Instead of writing about the vacuous political posturing, which reflects poorly on those that partake, why not ask the tough questions:
How many innocent people did you bomb and kill today America?
End the wars, end militarism, stop the slaughter.
Chris Hedges here
1,366,350 Iraqis slaughtered since 2003.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
Used to make fun of Cokie Roberts. I understand that the readers here didn't know my mom but trust me, that says a whole lot about what a clown she is.
Barack Obama: Change we can only imagine
Muslim man is dangerous = threat to civilization; must take away rights. White man is dangerous = politically correct liberals want to take away rights.
and the perception is democrats are just plain weak.
they should have gone after bush and cheney.
they didn't.
they acted like scared little rabbits then just like they are acting now.
at least republicans do thier corruption with courage and conviction. well, forget about the conviction part.
It doesn't matter how insane the Republicans act. If the Democrats just hunker down in terror of being called "Liberal" for sticking their heads up.The perception of weakness is valid and even confirmed when they shrink away from calling out the lies and bullshit.
Barack Obama: Change we can only imagine
Cokie is simply a beltway regurgitator - as long as you know she has no thoughts of her own it's like getting mad at a stenography machine during playback.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He82NBjJqf8
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
... are such dynamos of military force and strategy, can Cokie explain why we're still dribbling blood all o'er Afghanistan's plains and Iraq's streets?
Maddow's story on how this whole Detroit flight bombing has been a complete failure for the Republicans is some of her best work. She takes control of the narrative and turns the tables on the Republicans. She very strongly says the Republicans use of the terrorism issue through this incident has been a disaster for them.
That is what we need more of in the media. A different narrative than the Republican one that it is the Democrats that are weak on terrorism when this could be no further from the truth.
The Republicans have looked like complete idiots in their reaction to this Detroit flight incident. Maddow really showed the Republicans for who they are in exploiting the terrorism issue.
Watch the Maddow clip on this:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#34695374
Was that anybody who has ever worked a flight deck knows how very staged that was. Knows what an extra ordinary circumstance it was to have landed an aircraft on an already fouled deck, (with cameras, unqualified personnel, etc), knows how hard the crew must have worked to maintain safety for that little photo op. Plus he removed his helmet and walked around the deck, entirely unfamiliar with the markings, and safety requirement, with pockets full of pens and other items of F.O.D. Who was it who blamed the crew for hanging that banner? I'm sure the crew did but it was under orders and almost certainly over the objection of the air boss and the skipper of the vessel.
Barack Obama: Change we can only imagine
... that the banner was NOT the work of the White House, but someone aboard the Abraham Lincoln. Which would mean it got run past the skipper - ain't nobody hanging nothin' off that tower.
It was a long time before the Bushies admitted that, yes, they'd been behind it.
...just point out that Obama voted for every single war appropriation that Chimpster ever asked congress for...
point out that guantanamo is still open...
and also point out that the pentagons budget has not shrunk one single bit since Obama took office...
next time your arguing with a right winger...just tell em' that the war in afghanistan has only gotten bigger since Obama took office, (that usually shuts em' up!)
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
Warmongers rejoice, your Peace Prize President is another murderer after all.
You can relax and enjoy the carnage.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
... you can't eat just one, and when you've plowed through the bag, you realize you're not satisfied, but still want more.
that no Democrat will have any credibility on defense or terrorism until they reduce the Pentagon war machine budget by 90%.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
is 9/10 of 1% and the quantum logic (Bohr) won't allow for an aggregate to be greater than its constituent parts. Explain that.
Reduce the $1 trillion yearly Perpetual War Machine budget by 90%, ergo leaving $100 billion, still larger than the nearest rival.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
According to Ms. Roberts, the only people with credibility on war and peace issues are those who killed Vietnamese and/or Latin American civilians during the 60s, 70s, and 80s, and more recently, those who have damned generations of Iraqis by spewing literally tons of radioactive bullets at them.
I don't think so.
Can't somebody drop a house on her or at least douse her with a bucket of water?
Wow, even WIKI had info about Cokie I had not read before:
"While working in Guatemala, Sister Dianna Ortiz, a Catholic nun from New Mexico, was raped and tortured by members of a death squad until a US supervisor recognized that she was from the US.[12] Although there was no doubt of Ortiz's torture and ample evidence to corroborate her claims of an American supervisor, Roberts insisted that Ortiz was lying in a 1996 interview with Ortiz on the TV show "Nightline." Roberts' brother, Tom Boggs, working for the law firm of "Patton, Boggs, & Blow," was paid by the Guatemalan military to promote a more positive image of the death squads and the military dictatorship in Guatemala.[13]"
BTW, before he heroicially saved Afghanistan, Charlie Wilson was best known for his Congressional advocacy for the Somoza family. (I couldn't resist.)
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
I recall Ronald Reagan telling the New York Times to shut up and be patriotic when some of their journalists were digging a little too deeply into the US military's offensive actions against Central Americans in the early 80s -- because Salvadoran and Nicaraguan communists were about to invade Texas. He successfully nailed shut the coffin of that very brief era of US journalism (non-yellow) which had begun in the late 60s.
I think Ms. Roberts was working at PBS at the time -- and I speculate -- probably began acquiring her yellow tint soon after.
There's this myth that's been perpetuated for years in conservative Washington and among the right wing press that the Republican Party is the party of strong, courageous, heroic defenders of America, while the Democrats are namby-pamby sissy-boys that cannot and should not be entrusted with the nation's security. How and when this started--although I'll give much of the credit to Karl Rove--I'm not exactly sure. But a simple look into the military service, or lack thereof, of prominent politicians and spin monkeys offers a not so surprising revelation into who the real tough guys are in Washington:
Democrats
* Richard Gephardt: Air National Guard, 1965-71.
* David Bonior: Staff Sgt., Air Force 1968-72.
* Tom Daschle: 1st Lt., Air Force SAC 1969-72.
* Al Gore: enlisted Aug. 1969; sent to Vietnam Jan. 1971 as an army journalist in 20th Engineer Brigade.
* Bob Kerrey: Lt. J.G. Navy 1966-69; Medal of Honor, Vietnam.
* Daniel Inouye: Army 1943-47; Medal of Honor, WWII.
* John Kerry: Lt., Navy 1966-70; Silver Star, Bronze Star with Combat V, Purple Hearts.
* Charles Rangel: Staff Sgt., Army 1948-52; Bronze Star, Korea.
* Max Cleland: Captain, Army 1965-68; Silver Star & Bronze Star, Vietnam.
* Ted Kennedy: Army, 1951-53.
* Tom Harkin: Lt., Navy, 1962-67; Naval Reserve, 1968-74.
* Jack Reed: Army Ranger, 1971-1979; Captain, Army Reserve 1979-91.
* Fritz Hollings: Army officer in WWII; Bronze Star and seven campaign ribbons.
* Leonard Boswell: Lt. Col., Army 1956-76; Vietnam, DFCs, Bronze Stars, and Soldier's Medal.
* Pete Peterson: Air Force Captain, POW. Purple Heart, Silver Star and Legion of Merit.
* Mike Thompson: Staff sergeant, 173rd Airborne, and Purple Heart.
* Bill McBride: Candidate for Fla. Governor. Marine in Vietnam; Bronze Star with Combat V.
* Gray Davis: Army Captain in Vietnam, Bronze Star.
* Pete Stark: Air Force 1955-57
* Chuck Robb: Vietnam
* Howell Heflin: Silver Star
* George McGovern: Silver Star & DFC during WWII.
* Bill Clinton: Did not serve. Student deferments. Entered draft but received #311.
* Jimmy Carter: Seven years in the Navy.
* Walter Mondale: Army 1951-1953
* John Glenn: WWII and Korea; six DFCs and AirMedal with 18 Clusters.
* Tom Lantos: Served in Hungarian underground in WWII. Saved by Raoul Wallenberg.
Republicans
* Dick Cheney: did not serve. Several deferments, the last by marriage.
* Dennis Hastert: did not serve.
* Tom Delay: did not serve.
* Roy Blunt: did not serve.
* Bill Frist: did not serve.
* Mitch McConnell: did not serve.
* Rick Santorum: did not serve.
* Trent Lott: did not serve.
* John Ashcroft: did not serve. Seven deferments to teach business.
* Jeb Bush: did not serve.
* Karl Rove: did not serve.
* Saxby Chambliss: did not serve. "Bad knee." The man who attacked Max Cleland's patriotism.
* Paul Wolfowitz: did not serve.
* Vin Weber: did not serve.
* Richard Perle: did not serve.
* Douglas Feith: did not serve.
* Eliot Abrams: did not serve.
* Richard Shelby: did not serve.
* Jon Kyl: did not serve.
* Tim Hutchison: did not serve.
* Christopher Cox: did not serve.
* Newt Gingrich: did not serve.
* Don Rumsfeld: served in Navy (1954-57) as flight instructor.
* George W. Bush: failed to complete his six-year National Guard; got assigned to Alabama so he could campaign for family friend running for U.S. Senate; failed to show up for required medical exam, disappeared from duty.
* Ronald Reagan: due to poor eyesight, served in a non-combat role making movies.
* B-1 Bob Dornan: Consciously enlisted after fighting was over in Korea.
* Phil Gramm: did not serve.
* John McCain: Vietnam POW, Silver Star, Bronze Star, Legion of Merit, Purple Heart and Distinguished Flying Cross.
* Dana Rohrabacher: did not serve.
* John M. McHugh: did not serve.
* JC Watts: did not serve.
* Jack Kemp: did not serve. "Knee problem, " although continued in NFL for 8 years.
* Dan Quayle: Journalism unit of the Indiana National Guard.
* Rudy Giuliani: did not serve.
* George Pataki: did not serve.
* Spencer Abraham: did not serve.
* John Engler: did not serve.
* Lindsey Graham: National Guard lawyer.
* Arnold Schwarzenegger: AWOL from Austrian army base.
* Sean Hannity: did not serve.
* Rush Limbaugh: did not serve (4-F with a 'pilonidal cyst.')
* Bill O'Reilly: did not serve.
* Michael Savage: did not serve.
* George Will: did not serve.
* Chris Matthews: did not serve.
* Paul Gigot: did not serve.
* Bill Bennett: did not serve.
* Pat Buchanan: did not serve.
* John Wayne: did not serve.
* Bill Kristol: did not serve.
* Kenneth Starr: did not serve.
* Antonin Scalia: did not serve.
* Clarence Thomas: did not serve.
* Ralph Reed: did not serve.
... let's not forget Army Ranger Pat Tillman, who left a lucrative career in the NFL to serve. That's ATHEIST Pat Tillman, whom our faux Christian warriors MOCKED.
so a bunch of "won't serve bastards" can swift boat him. did coke serve? should obama convert to christianity like tiger?
who served in the Congress. Otherwise she might have credibility as a journalist. That is a problem for someone who appears to have gotten her job through connections to those who funded the broadcaster who hired her.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
Don't get me wrong; I think the GOP (grand old pharisees) is destroying the US and converting it to a 3rd world nation by selling it to the highest bidder.
However, I was going to make a post about the differences in members of congresses' service records. I did some (gasp!) research and saw that more gops had served. Of course the "intellectual leaders" and policy shapers haven't.
The post wasn't a blanket statement about gop "representatives", but made me think (IMHO) that a comment was in order. It was not an example of the following:
In general, we must never let a lack of facts or opinions masquerading as facts allow them true points on which to base attacks. They often use a single verifiable error to discredit an entire statement or policy. Of course they use lies (aka misstatements) to do the same, but that shouldn't change things.
We need to hold ourselves to a higher standard.
When I put on my tin-foil hat (mine is actually titanium) I like to use facts before I launch into my psychotic ramblings.
The term verified facts is redundant; kind of like saying factual facts. Facts are true and verifi*able* or they are not facts: A feather and a hammer fall at the same rate in the lack of an atmosphere (see Apollo). Cheney did not serve in the military.
Implications: Personal actions taken by him in order to obtain deferments implies that he conciously, and with malice aforethought sought deferments in order to avoid service. This implies that he's a cowardly fuck who doesn't care about serving his country, much less anyone else besides himself. He probably considered his wife a baby making machine in order to help obtain deferments.
My implications are, of course, simply an example. He is surly a stall wart defender and defender of truth, justice and the American way. His political service. and actions as a true and learned xian make this a factual and verifiable fact.
"In truth and not in seeming." -- JRR Tolkien
E Pleb Neesta
GODISNOWHERE
Blessed are the cheese makers.
I used to like Cokie Roberts because she appeared to be more intelligent and open minded than her roundtable partners back when Brinkley was running the show.
Unfortunately, she is being left behind by the times. She still adheres to the political wisdom that was rapidly being left behind in the nineties.
Not having served in the military is not a weakness for a democrat these days. Remember, our leaders in this new century came of age after the draft was stopped (a major conduit for soldiers who would not otherwise have chosen a military career) - so the great majority of our leaders and our electorate would not have served.
She is not staying current, either because she is incapable of doing so, or because she intentionally does not want to be. If she has nothing pertinent to add to the discussion, then ABC should replace her with someone who is aware of what is going on.
how about Rachael Maddow?
what about Rachel Maddow?
to take cokie's position
That's an interesting idea, but I'd hate to see her leave her current show.
I don't know that she'd fit the slot either. Cokie Roberts' unique position is that she's the daughter of a politician and has her foot in the door with a lot of people. At least she used to have her foot in the door. Rachel, on the other hand is a much more intellectual person. She has a D.Phil in Political Science from Oxford and is much more into detail than these Sunday morning political hack/orgies can handle.
I think that Rachel's the greatest, but I love the job she's doing now and wouldn't want to lose her voice on a daily basis.
cokie is an f'ing C
what a bitch, it's the bush administration
and the whole gop that has put us in peril
of terrorist's threats. bush/cheney did NOTHING
to make us safer. so cokie STFU
Cheney, Bush and Ashcroft had other priorities that kept them from serving during the Vietnam War. Obama was 14 years old when Saigon was evacuated.
Stick to Jeebus, Cokie.
Listening to this stupid lying bitch!
The republicans only winning issue the war on terror!
What utter bullshit!
I don't know why anyone bothers with these stupid lying fucks!
republicanism/conservatism is a mental illness that is killing America!
Cokie should know this: Republicans have a lower percentage of veterans than democrats and always have. Dick Cheney-five deferments, W-AWOL, Liebermann-six deferments.
For writing this! Way to go Cokie Roberts! Does she even get how demeaning and horrible that statement is? Apparently not! WOW.....never ceases to amaze me!
Margaret:Sadly, Cokie Roberts seems to be under the false impression that her hero, George Bush, landed that S-3C Viking on that ship. He did not. He was in the right seat. That aircraft has one set of flight controls and he was nowhere near them. You are correct, flight deck rules call for keeping your helmet on until you are safely in the island or below decks. The whole goddamned thing was a staged photo-op. Cokie Roberts better be careful or she will turn into Peggy Noonan in her dotage.
Cokie Roberts - the bag lady of the Beltway.
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
Hey Dopey Roberts , blow it out your ass you pompous bag of wind ! Like Bush / Cheney "served" in the military ? Unbelievable , but then again ... no , it's not . Side note ( you can easily look this up ), fact : There are far more Dems who have served than Repugnants , the Repugs like to start wars , profit from them but not fight them , when it comes to the fighting they talk tough but then run and hide and others have to make the sacrifice .
Shouldn't she be off collecting social security somewhere? And maybe take David Broder with her?
"Trust no one, Mr. Mulder." - Well-Manicured Man
Cokie Roberts and George Will. Different sides of the same coin. Both irrelevant.
YOU and the rest of the 'celebrity' jour....I can't even call you a journalist, Bush 'a$$ kissers' FAILED the American People and are a disgrace for the pablum that you spewed while the 'neo-coward' cartel bankrupted this Country financially and morally.
Do us all a favor RETIRE, until then ABC is off my remote.
Miss Piggy has more credibility and Helen Thomas makes you look like the 'beltway-dummy' you are......
many of villagers, Cokie Roberts, Pat Buchanan, Sam Donaldson, Goerge Will, Bob Schrum, Bill Bennett, David Broeder, et al is that they are all getting old and will be gone sooner rather than later. Hopefully, at least some of them will have the good grace to retire before they druel on the air.
They will suck on the public media teat as long as they can draw breath......otherwise they might have to get a real job. And you know they don't have enough money to retire.....not in the manner to which they have all become accustomed. Move over, Grandpa Larry King.
“The greatest evildoers are those who don’t remember because they have never given thought to the matter, and, without remembrance, nothing can hold them back,”
The idea expressed by Cokie Roberts is actually consistent with the idea of issue ownership that can be found in the academic political science literature. According to John Petrocik -- who is one of the researchers who has done some work in this area -- basically there are certain issues that the two major American political parties "own" or be better equipped to handle. Republicans, for example, tend to be perceived as more competent in handling issues such as national security, lowering taxes, crime and policing, etc., whereas Democrats are perceived as more competent on issues such as education, civil rights, social welfare, etc. Keep in mind these perceptions are general tendencies, and not all issues are "owned." For example, neither party is consistently believed to "own" the economy. Rather, it is a performance-based assessment. Nonetheless, Americans are, on average, more likely to perceive Republicans (or Democrats) as more competent on certain issues.
Moreover, Danny Hayes has found that issue ownership also appears to have some influence over the tone of reporting on presidential candidates -- at least in 1992, 1996, and 2000. That is, Democratic and Republican candidates received modestly more favorable coverage when the substance of the reporting dealt with their party's "owned" issues.
However, like most things in academia, there is evidence that suggests issue ownership is not followed by candidates themselves (see, e.g., Emmett Buell and Lee Sigelman's Attack Politics: Negativity in Presidential Campaigns Since 1960).
For those who buy into issue ownership, these perceptions amount to reputations that have been built and maintained over successive elections. And while politicians or party's may issue "trespass" from time to time (e.g., Bill Clinton and crime during the 1992 campaign), it tends to be difficult to dislodge such perceptions in the aggregate mind of the American people.
You wrote it yourself:
I'm just spitballing here, but it seems to me that Republican "ownership" of all things military came about in 1952 & 1956, when Eisenhower ran against Adlai Stephenson (who, btw, had been in training in the Navy when WW I ended, so he never saw combat), which
might have beenwas legitimate. Ever since then, though, the differences between the expertise in military matters seems to be a wash, but the reportage- or, at least, the punditry- would have you believe differently. That's indicative of 50+ years of laziness on the part of the villagers, imo.Don't try to confuse the issue with half-truths and gorilla dust.
What is political science in America, anyway?
If a party addresses social issues for the working class, those issues should be considered central to its position.
And likewise if a party addresses issues of the Capitalist class.
The the problem in America is that the only time the distinction was so crystal clear was during the Great Depression, when the real Left, outside of the Democrats, pulled them to the left.
Since then the Democrats have steadily drifted back to a narrow parallel with the Republicans.
There is only a vestige of the former qualities of the Democrats remaining, though the propaganda of the Democrats (and the Republicans) to say otherwise is intense.
As for the MSM, they have their own agenda.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
Yet one more reason NPR will never receive another dime in donations from me.
I listened. Bush and Cheneyu are still free men. I will never trust again.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
Here we have Cokie Roberts, queen of centrism and mouthpiece for the beltway villagers, questioning a democrat on national security while ignoring the fact that 95% of the people attacking Obama were too cowardly to fight when it was their turn. How do we ever expect to move this country in a new direction with the beltway punditry caught in the throws of "bipartisanship" in their reporting. Damn the truth and facts,as CNN does after they have two mouthpieces on debating an issue, "well we just leave it there and let the people decide", as if there are no independent facts to be assessed, and no truth on either side of the debate. No, lets just stick with the paradigm laid out by conventional wisdom, Democrats soft on national security, and Republicans strong on national security. Let's just ignore the fact the Bush/Cheney administration totally fucked up two wars and left it for Obama to clean up their mess.
If we progressives and liberals don't get it, we deserve to continually be screwed by the political system we try to operate in. As long as these false paradigms exist unchallenged by the mouthpieces in the mainstream media, we will constantly fail. And this paradigm does not apply to just national security. It's why Obama and the Democratic Leaderhip, against all evidence to the contrary, constantly strived for this mythical "bipartisanship" on health care reform. They are so afraid of being criticized by the MSM for being partisan as a way of stopping a progressive agenda from being instituted. It is clear to any thinking person, without major media reform and campaign finance reform, we will never change course in America. And for those moderate, centrist Democrats who think the system works just fine, you need to wake the hell up. It is not enough to elect the right people to office and hope they do the right thing, we have to fundamentally destroy the system that destroys good people who have good intentions when they go to Washington.
What the hell kind of name is "Cokie"?
madprogressive - It isn't just that they failed to serve, it's that they rah rah the war that they avoided. Then they rah rah all of the wars since then. That is what pisses me off. Cheney actually had the balls to say publicly that "I had better things to do in the '70s than to serve in the military." What? You arrogant motherfucker. Than you manage to get into a position to send thousands, thousands, off to die for you? You are truly a bastard of unbelievable proportions. Cokie Roberts hasn't got a fucking clue.
"it's a particular problem for a Democrat who hasn't served in the military"
Or a Republican: Cheney, Bush (hid out in Alabama),Reagan.
“The greatest evildoers are those who don’t remember because they have never given thought to the matter, and, without remembrance, nothing can hold them back,”
Along with the rest of the Bush era hack pundits who were wrong about just about everything.
They are irrelevant, zero credibility dinosaurs.
liberals continue to support this crap, with their donations.
Just not this one--long ago gave up on them.
"Does Cokie remember how John Kerry was savagely attacked for actually serving in the military -- and receiving a Purple Heart -- by Fox News and the Swift Boaters?"
According to factcheck.org, Kerry received 3 Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star and a Silver Star.
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