Matthew Continetti: 'Conservative Fool-Pundit'
I watched this last Sunday on Reliable Sources and saved the clip because there was a lot going on during the week. Howard Kurtz' segment was how skeptical the press was over how successful President Obama's climate talks in Copenhagen were. The Weekly Standard's Matthew Continetti makes a fool of himself with this statement about President Obama and the press:
CONTINETTI: Well, I think the puncturing began earlier in the summer with the Nobel Prize announcement and the failure to win the Olympics. And, for me, that's the turning point. That's when the press started to actually start criticizing the Obama administration, not giving it always a free pass.
With this agreement, basically it's an agreement to one day reach an agreement. So it should be taken with the appropriate skepticism.
Conservatives are just not very serious people. They attacked a sitting president for winning a worldwide award and openly cheered when the Olympic committee didn't award Chicago the bid. If anything, their behavior started to turn average American families against conservatives. And Continetti's idiotic view that the press turned on Obama because he lost the Olympic bid is ... how should we say ... ridiculous.
He wasn't called on his lunacy either, which is a systemic problem in TV news. Conservatives are always allowed to spew off nonsense and are never corrected.
(h/t CSPANjunkie)
Full transcript via CNN:
KURTZ: Just in time for the evening news on Friday, President Obama salvaged the climate talks in Copenhagen with an 11th-hour agreement he trumpeted as significant and unprecedented. But the international deal was nonbinding, totally voluntary, and the emissions targets fell short of what the conference's goals were.
So, are the media buying the White House spin that this was some kind of breakthrough?
Ryan Lizza, Charlie Gibson said that what Obama brought back from Copenhagen may not be worth the paper it's printed on. Are the media just sort of dismissing this agreement?
LIZZA: No, they're not dismissing it. I think they're treating it with the right degree of skepticism.
It's not what a lot of people expected out of the conference. And the key in politics is often meeting expectations. It's not nothing, and I think a lot will depend on what happens next year when the climate legislation starts making its way through the Senate. We can do a lot here in United States on our own.
KURTZ: Well, it's not nothing, but some would say it's close to nothing because there's no way of enforcing this, and it didn't even set a firm target for the next round, if there's next round of negotiations.
And do you see this as journalists kind puncturing the administration's hype?
CONTINETTI: Well, I think the puncturing began earlier in the summer with the Nobel Prize announcement and the failure to win the Olympics. And, for me, that's the turning point. That's when the press started to actually start criticizing the Obama administration, not giving it always a free pass.
With this agreement, basically it's an agreement to one day reach an agreement. So it should be taken with the appropriate skepticism.
KURTZ: Does it seem to you that -- you know, oftentimes when an administration announces an agreement, particularly an international agreement, that gets reported and then you go and you quote skeptics and supporters and so forth. Here, it seemed to me the press just kind of skipped that step and said, well, this thing was a letdown, it was a disappointment, it was a papering over of disagreement.
CONNOLLY: Well, I think, interestingly, what's happened over the last few years, and especially the last several months, Howie, is that much of the press core, and the public as well, has become much more educated about this issue around climate change and environmental issues and science. And so you had a group of journalists who really sort of knew their stuff. Many of them had been there for the full 10, 12 days of the conference, listening and talking to experts for quite some time.
KURTZ: Which was even duller, by the way, than the Senate negotiations. It seemed like nothing was happening. It was like watching snowfall.
CONNOLLY: And as Ryan was pointing out, there was so much anticipation and excitement before this event. And, you're right, I mean, it really did kind of fizzle. But I think Obama, trying to repeat sort of his Olympic trip, you know, swoop in, here I am, and I'm so eloquent, and this is just going to be fabulous, interestingly, what you saw afterward was the White House trying hard to build a lot of drama into those final meetings.
We were getting background briefings and things from White House senior unnamed officials who were trying to do the whole, "And there was a meeting going on and he forced his way in."
KURTZ: Right.
CONNOLLY: And so, really, building up even just the logistics of it.
KURTZ: That he crash the meeting with the Chinese and Indian and other officials. Fascinating.
"He wasn't called on his lunacy either"
To the M$M it isn't lunacy - it is their collective counter point to reality.
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
"He wasn't called on his lunacy either, which is a systemic problem in TV news."
(DeNiro voice) "L'il bit"
Is it crazy for a PR man to call his brand of shaving cream the best?
No.
Continetti is doing his job. His job is bad for our country. But I have to admit his disdain for Obama equals mine. We have different reasons for despising Obama.
Despising is the right word too. In the past year I have come to see Obama as Bill Clinton II.
I think the phrase "idiotic view" pretty well hits it on the head. The conservatives are desperately clinging to the warped view that 80 per cent of America rejected.
What view is that?
Will you repeat that statement when the Dems get owned in 2010?
Where did the 80% number come from? Obama's approval is at 55% approve and 41% disapprove.
http://www.dailykos.com/weeklytrends
You may want to change that headline.
Otherwise, MC is such a twit. And a huge Palin fan. And a chicken hawk, nailed by a caller on C-Span many months ago. Ha ha ha.
"Matthew not Michael"
Man, I have to read stuff more carefully - I missed that!
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvsDIp_WHRc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8utu48qhO9E&fe...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTZ4gaUo_xw&fe...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjQuJDjZar8&fe...
Thanks!
The Best One!
of this post is both Kurtz and Continetti are clueless idiots or am I reading it wrong?
Being like Carville, Kurtz is married to a Republican consultant and commentator.
Fair and balanced I suppose
Which is why I never take the corporate media/cable seriously. Usually it's just on as background noise.
Politics is for the present, but an equation is for eternity. Albert Einstein
The Media can make up anything, any story line they want with complete impunity anymore and people will "buy it".
Fantasy Island . . goes National
"Conservatives are always allowed to spew off nonsense and are never corrected."
I was going to come quote it too. Looks like I get to take a number. But really, any good PR guy (conservative of other) gets away with this.
Puerto Rican?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
He's Puerto Rican? OMG! Really? I had no idea they had conservatives in Puerto Rico.
HAPPY BOXING DAY!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_FVD0BR2Mc
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
They're still going with the canned theme that the press was falling all over Obama and that's why he won, and any proof to the contrary they use as the "proof" of their point.
So mcgramps and bimbo lost because they didn't have the press. But when one can't remember how many homes he owns, when Americans are being foreclosed on, and the other didn't even seem to know what job she was even running for...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
also.
Obey
Consume
Watch TV
Submit
Sleep
No Thought
Conform
Work 8 Hours
Sleep 8 Hours
Play 6 hours
Buy
. . . this lifestyle doesn't appeal to you?
F*&^!n Pukes; if he didn't go they would have said that it was just more proof that Obama hates America or some such nonesence.
I don't think ths SCHMUK believes half of what comes out of his mouth. He gets air time to offer an off-the-road-and-into-the-ditch-RIGHT-WING point of view and that's what he delivers... and then we are supposed to accept it as though it's a valid opposing position to take. WHAT HORSE-SHIT.
Maybe their off the road to avoid the horse shit.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
John, please edit your headline. He's Matthew in the rest of the blog.
It's not all or nothing.
There's an asshole here in the Dallas area who owns a garage of some kind, offering free "Nobel Prizes" with an oil change.
I suppose he "thinks" he's being clever.
He's said he's had some complaints, but lots of support on the internet.
But I don't see how internet support translates into cars going into his shop, since who knows where they're pecking from?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Good Ol' USA
Much better to cite the case of one lone asshole making a fool of himself than to engage in a substantive discussion of why a guy who's spreading war, quite aggressively, received such a prize.
The purpose of Crooks and Liars is to keep small-minded individuals thinking in terms of the left vs. right garbage they've been trained to respond to.
right on.
1. We must throw rocks at those we are told are our enemies, and we must manufacture a defense of whoever is named as our team leaders.
2. Never discuss policy without remembering to do the above. It's always preferable to entirely avoid getting lured into a discussion of policy, and to only do the above.
3. You win the game by electoral victory. To properly enjoy this, we recommend a lobotomy. Always remember: acknowledging that Obama and Bush are identical in all their underlying assumptions about terrorism, economics and monetary policy, government spying, social programs, etc., etc., will not lead to electoral victory.
The purpose of Crooks and Liars is to keep small-minded individuals thinking in terms of the left vs. right garbage they've been trained to respond to.
Continetti is just another desperate Neocon dupe that is attempting to legitimize a failed party and philosophy. And their corporate media enablers like CNN gladly give them a worldwide megaphone to do so. These hacks would have been buried long ago with their utter ineptitude had it not been for the MSM propping them up and the Democrats lack of fortitude.
"We will find fulfillment not in the goods that we have, but in the good we can do for each other."
Robert F. Kennedy
failed philosophies such as those that drive government spying, finding excuses to spread war in the Mid East, manipulating the economy and money supply to serve a tiny group. Thank god those neocons have been exposed and we have Obama now.
The purpose of Crooks and Liars is to keep small-minded individuals thinking in terms of the left vs. right garbage they've been trained to respond to.
if you were to walk into any American mall and start crying out to the lemmings, “You are in great and imminent danger” you would get tackled by security guards and the bystanders would applaud as they took you away.
Instead of Republican Lite. That's change I don't believe in.
"We will find fulfillment not in the goods that we have, but in the good we can do for each other."
Robert F. Kennedy
...to William The Bloody Kristol's Batman?
Ambiguously gay dynamic duo.
... is that such a far reaching negotiation is not like going to the store and come home with a loaf of bread. It more resembles a bride-to-be going to a bridal shop to order a bridal gown, which will require many sittings and consultations until it is what she wants.
What these hate mongers expect is for Obama to come home with immediate results - maybe like Bush did? Threatening everybody with our 'we can annihilate you in a week' arsenal if we don't get what we demand?
Diplomacy is most often difficult. One must 'give' as well as 'receive', but that is not what these Obama haters expect.
If you need funds to pay for essentials, you have a revenue problem
If you need funds to pay for frivolity, you have a spending problem
Obama is not talking, he's throwing lives and billions of dollars down the toilet in the Mid East, and he's committed to an unending military enterprise there based on *identical* logic to Bush's (that logic being that terrorists attacked us because they "hate freedom." If Obama didn't believe this, he would be left to wrestle with the idea that we were attacked because we've been screwing with people in that region in horrible ways for generations, and the way to stop the cycle is to stop interfering with their lives. But Obama obviously believes that terrorists hate freedom. Obama is therefore an asshole). His sanctions in Iran are an act of war that punish the regular working, struggling people, and they're also based on the assumption that we have the moral right to dictate who has what technology, which is in itself such an arrogant and offensive position that it is bound to create more terrorism. This is diplomacy?
The purpose of Crooks and Liars is to keep small-minded individuals thinking in terms of the left vs. right garbage they've been trained to respond to.
... in the Middle East because I don't believe al qaeda needs Afghanistan - they are everywhere, but we are not really doing diplomacy over there, except in Iran, Palestine, Israel and Saudi Arabia.
I think we are more talking about Oslo, Copenhagen and the Olympics. When we got any of The Olympics I don't recall other countries whining about what losers they were. Only one country gets them at a time and this time it was Brazil's turn.
"It is better to have tried and failed, than never to have tried at all"
(Originally with 'loved' instead of 'tried' and 'lost' instead of 'failed' - from Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem In Memoriam:27, 1850:)
If you need funds to pay for essentials, you have a revenue problem
If you need funds to pay for frivolity, you have a spending problem
I would define it as discussing matters and working not to involve the citizens of the country one represents in conflicts that have nothing to do with them. I would also define it as only using force or forceful measures when the watertight case can be made that no other option is available.
We are interfering militarily, propping up this regime or bombing that area, starving civilians here or picking up the tab there, in all the regions you name. That's not diplomacy. That's stirring the pot. And all the reasons Obama would cite for doing this are the same reasons Bush would cite.
Olympics: nonissue.
The purpose of Crooks and Liars is to keep small-minded individuals thinking in terms of the left vs. right garbage they've been trained to respond to.
points. Its good to see not everyone drinks the Kool Aid.
was there some kind of physical competition for the Olympics that Obama let a bunch of old world leaders beat him at? Incontinetti should engage in a new pair of Depends because his are full of shit.
howard kurtz interviewing michael 'i am so telling mom on you' continetti on a show called "reliable sources"... now that is rich
of an interviewer to "correct" the interviewee? Interviews are not debates. If a question elicits an answer that appears at odds with known facts or even reality itself a good interviewer will expose it with further questions by way of supplying the rope for a fool to hang themselves. Kurtz is, of course, not a good interviewer. When his guests commit howlers he generally covers for them by changing the subject and leading them back from the edge whenever he is sympathetic to their cause. That would be right wingers naturally.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
I actually agree somewhat with his perspective. The Nobel prize was unfortunate and looked like the world was fawning over a president who had done nothing to merit the award. And while the Olympics weren't up to the President, it still looked bad for him to spend the time & effort to make a presentation and have reject Chicago. Looks bad for the administration's ability to suss out the possible consequences.
At any rate, that's about the time I started to lose my support for Obama, and the health care debacle, along with escalation of the war, support for the bankers and not the people, as well as the inaction on don't ask, don't tell.... well, it just shows me that this president is not willing to go to the wall for the people who supported him.
the idea that any time the president weighs in on an issue they should defer to his wishes is a very strange one indeed. It was purest hubris to think the Olympics should be awarded to Chicago on that account. He made his pitch and I'm glad he did. The IOC disagreed.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Chicago not getting the Olympics was a real slap in the face for Obama. He walked right into that one. His elitist's ego took a big hit. He also got blindsided by the Nobel Prize which I believe he got for all his BS speeches up to that point. And that is the key to Obama plain and simple, pay attention to what he does not what he says. He is a gifted liar. Remember, Barack Obama appointed eleven members of the Trilateral Commission to top-level and key positions in his administration within his first ten days in office.
This guy is an idiot, but is apparently the best conservatives have to offer these days. They have literally lost all their intellectuals, the ones that actually used to make a little sense. Now they have guys like Continetti, who are allowed to make the most outlandish comments without ever being challenged.
are hard at work defending Bush's policies, now that Obama has adopted every last one. What a game.
The purpose of Crooks and Liars is to keep small-minded individuals thinking in terms of the left vs. right garbage they've been trained to respond to.
progressives are waking up in droves and are rejecting Obama. They are now calling for a third party and quick. You can spot the true apologists, they blame progressives for not doing enough and demand they blindly follow the false messiah on and on, mistake after mistake, lie after lie.
He won't last long either
He had better pray that he stays out of prison.
'We, the People'............rimshot................hahahahahaha!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lKrnhafUKc&fe...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Any Repug that blames Obama for the failed Chicago olympic bid have their head so far up their ass that they have no idea which way to turn to find daylight again.
The Chicago bid was strictly corporate with NO federal funds, the Brazil bid was heavily subsidized by government funds.
Obama was in a damned if you do/damned if you don't situation that was doomed from the beginning.
Repugs need a gut punch/dope slap for advocating Chicago losing their bid.
http://stedic.ca/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/d...
'We, the People'............rimshot................hahahahahaha!
Mr Incontinenti is everything you'd expect from Bill Kristol's understudy. He is a loathsome little turd. A slimy, smirking chickenhawk who should have his smug little arse hauled off to the nearest recruiting office and inserted into a uniform marked 'Afghanistan Front Line'.
I wish I could get a job making huge $$$$$$$ for nothing but pulling s**t out of my ass and making idiocy up for the purpose of enriching billionaires.
But since I am not lacking a conscience - like all conservatives; I guess I will have to keep on working for a living.
Rush Limbaugh is what a smart person thinks a stupid bigot sounds like.
Try being a conceptual artist.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Confetti: "...And, for me, that's the turning point..."
This guy is a cheerleading clown for the Sarah Palin Circus. Any idiot with a book and 25 percent of a brain can get on CNN (i.e. Carrie Prejean)
NOBODY 2012
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