The Five, Fox News Channel, Sept 10, 2013
The big booking this Sunday is President Obama speaking to George Stephanopoulos. However, at this point, I despair the state of debate in this country...and watch me break out the equivalencies...on BOTH SIDES. We know that the Republicans "blacktrack" anything and everything Obama promotes, even if the idea originated from them. But the left seem equally unable to have a discussion of any kind of intellectual honesty about Obama either. They either insist that he is some Jedi eleventy dimensional chess player or that he's the worst murderous totalitarian Hitler-wannabe that even came out of the Chicago political machine. Please, people. He is neither. He is a politician, for good and ill. He is neither a liberal savior nor is he some corrupted corporatist war-loving evil-doer. He both deserves our praise for doing things well (and there is no need to exclaim it as some higher cognitive jiu-jitsu we mere mortals couldn't have anticpated) and our pressure and censure when he makes mistakes (without the "ZOMG, impeach him!" screams, thankyouverymuch). Let's stop the cartoonish perceptions and expectations. This isn't a comic book. There are real problems we need to address, and a little intellectual honesty would be appreciated.
Oh, and if you still haven't started listening to Blue Gal's and Driftglass' weekly podcast, The Professional Left, don't make me berate you. They do a great job of talking about this exact issue this week. Don't miss it.
ABC's "This Week" — President Barack Obama; Powerhouse roundtable: ABC News’ Cokie Roberts and Matthew Dowd, Wall Street Journal editorial page editor Paul Gigot, and Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., and Rep. Donna Edwards, D-Md. Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Robert Schenkkan.
NBC's "Meet the Press" — Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and Roy Blunt, R-Mo. Former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, Former Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) and CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo. Political roundtable: Associate Editor at the Washington Post, Bob Woodward; Executive Editor of MSNBC.com and author of The Message: The Reselling of President Obama, Richard Wolffe; Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker; and Republican Strategist Ana Navarro. Foreign policy roundtable: New York Times Columnist Tom Friedman; Senior Fellow at the Wilson Center Robin Wright; National Correspondent for the Atlantic and Columnist for Bloomberg View, Jeffrey Goldberg; and NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Andrea Mitchell.
CBS' "Face the Nation" — Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Bob Corker, R-Tenn. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. CBS News senior correspondent John Miller. Panel: Harvard University's David Gergen, The Washington Post's Michael Gerson, The Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan, and Susan Page of USA Today.
MSNBC's "UP with Steve Kornacki" - Rev. Joe Watkins, Fmr. WH aide to Pres. G H.W. Bush; Fmr. Rep. Martin Frost (D-TX); Chris Kofinis, Democratic Strategist; Ginger Gibson, Politico; Selena Roberts, Fmr. sports writer, New York Times & Sports Illustrated, founder & CEO of Roopstigo.com; Susan Ware, historian & author, “Game, Set, Match: Billie Jean King and the Revolution in Women's Sports”; Mike Pesca, NPR.
MSNBC's "Melissa Harris-Perry" - John Nichols, Washington Correspondent for The Nation; Soledad O’Brien, CEO of Starfish Media Group; Rep. Terri Sewell (D-AL); Anthea Butler, Professor of Religious Studies and Graduate Chair of Religion at the University of Pennsylvania; Sister Camille D’Arienzo, Former President of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious / Sister of Mercy; Joy Reid, MSNBC Contributor and Managing Editor of TheGrio.com; William Cohan, Author, “House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street”; Josh Barro, Politics Editor at Business Insider; Avik Roy, Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute; Michael Peppard, Theology Professor at Fordham University.
MSNBC's "Disrupt with Karen Finney" - Dana Milbank, Washington Post; Rep. James Langevin (D-RI); Lara Setrakian, Co-Founder and Executive Editor, Syria Deeply; Jonathan Alter, MSNBC Political Analyst; Steven Clemons, The Atlantic; A.B. Stoddard, The Hill; Robert Costa, National Review.
CNN's "State of the Union" — Reps. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, Elijah Cummings, D-Md., Mike Rogers, R-Mich., and Adam Schiff, D-Calif.; Sens. Bob Casey, D-Pa., and Ron Johnson, R-Wis.; Gov. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo. Panel: Crossfire hosts SE Cupp and Newt Gingrich, plus the President of the Center for American Progress, Neera Tanden, and CNN Political Commentator Cornell Belcher. Live Second Airing with Senate Foreign Relations Committee members Bob Casey (D-PA) and Ron Johnson (R-WI). We have all angles covered with our national security experts Former Chief Weapons Inspector David Kay, Fmr. CENTCOM Commander in Chief Gen. Anthony Zinni, and Former U.S. Under Secretary for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns. Plus, AEI’s Danielle Pletka, Former Chief of Staff to Leon Panetta Jeremy Bash and CNN Political Commentators Donna Brazile and Ana Navarro.
CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" - Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski. Chef and food critic Anthony Bourdain.
CNN's "Reliable Sources" - (Guest host: Politico's Patrick Gavin) NPR's Deborah Amos, PBS anchor & 'CBS This Morning' co-host Charlie Rose, The Washington Post's Max Fisher, DecodeDC host Andrea Seabrook and CQ/Roll Call's Emily Cadei, technology columnist Farhad Manjoo, University of Maryland journalism professor Mark Feldstein, Will Tracy, editor-in-chief of 'The Onion'.
"Fox News Sunday" — Reps. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Michael McCaul, R-Texas. Panel: Brit Hume, Fox News Senior Political Analyst; Jane Harman, President of Woodrow Wilson Center & Fmr Congresswoman (D-CA); Bill Kristol, The Weekly Standard; Charles Lane, Editorial Writer for The Washington Post.
So what's catching your eye this morning?