Friday News Roundup - Hour 1
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-04-29/friday-news-roundup-hour-1
The White House shuffles its national security team. The U.S. economic growth rate slows. And the president releases his long form birth certificate. A panel of journalists joins guest host Susan Page for analysis of the week's top national news stories.
Guests
Jerry Seib
Washington bureau chief, The Wall Street Journal.
Karen Tumulty
national political reporter, The Washington Post.
Ronald Brownstein
political director and columnist for National Journal.
Comments
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Sometimes wonder how citizens who claim so deeply about the welfare of their country can have such profoundly different views on courses of action. It makes sense there always would be “fringe” elements that would disagree, but to live in a country where roughly half the country disagrees vehemently with other half would seem unlikely, but there it is.
Sometimes wonder if it comes down to is a dispute between those who pursue fact and those who instead pursue what they would like to believe, facts be damned.
Issues that face our country can be some complex, but on a lot of these issues both sides can not be correct. The truth is a precious commodity; but facts are facts.
Unfortunately, most of the commentators (talking heads) that have been so wrong over the years (like concerning Iraq before the war or concerning the coming the financial collapse before it happened) are the same ones that strongly influence the debate today.
The more I study the facts, a lot of these debates are pretty straightforward. Anyone not capable of changing his opinion once the truth is shown, may have personal motive, but he/she is certainly not a person of integrity.
Now that Obama has released long version birth certificate, is it now necessary to prove Hawaii is a state?
Observing “signage” back when T-partiers were protesting town hall meetings during health care debate, I thought one appropriate sign might be:
Just in- reliableRepublican sources have just
located Obama’s birth certificate. It reads:
'I wuz born in Timbuktu.
(signed) Prezdent Brock O’Bama.
If the United States government stayed within the confines of the Constitution it would be transparent to everyone what the role of the government is. Liberal democrats have gone so far afield with social safety nets and the government knows best mentality to be ridiculous. Socially conservative republicans are pretty much the same. Both parties in actual decision making support a huge interventionist military.
"Facts and truths" are cherry picked to fit all agendas.
As far as the birther issue, Mr. Obama chose to use it a divisive tool as long as he could until more and more people were beginning to wonder why he refused to release the original B.C. and just settle it.
I wonder how any sane person can consider Sideshow Don's behavior anything but racist, especially with regards to questioning President Obama's college results. Did he not make law review? And, here is where the hammer hits the nail, he never uttered a single word about the 43rd President, who got into Yale with SAT scores 200 points below the average of his incoming class and parlayed his C+ average (his words) to Harvard Business School. Did I miss his hue and cry bemoaning how he should not have been in Ivy League schools. Of course not and we know why? Oh and didn't lying Don tell us he had his people investigating the birth and they had some "information". Guess he is going to insult (and lie) his way to the Presidency.
@ Monte
Did we ever get George Bush's National Guard Duty records? Guess only some have to release records....especially something that should have been public. Don't you just love the double standards in the world.
admandondraper wrote: "Did we ever get George Bush's National Guard Duty records?"
There isn't a Constitututional requirement that a POTUS be a National Guardsman. There is a requirement that he be born in the United States.
Drew Kelly wrote:
"Sometimes wonder if it comes down to is a dispute between those who pursue fact and those who instead pursue what they would like to believe, facts be damned."
I KNOW!!! Isn't it amazing???!!! I can never understand why liberal Democrats don't understand the FACT that ever big-government, socialist state ever tried, fails, whereas our small-government republic did great for 150 years before Wilson and FDR messed it up.
I know the media tends to be sensitive to criticism (aren't we all) but it would be helpful for your show to discuss today the perceived complicity of the mainstream media in advancing the so called birther controversy. (By the way even calling it a controversy legitimizes it to a degree). When media stars like George Stephanopolous bring up the subject in an interview with the President, when Christiane Amanpour and Meredith Viera allow Trump to spew nonsense without correcting or challenging him, this debases the whole process and makes the media look terrible. You could argue this is in fact an attack on our democracy since it makes the press suspect to so many people. It seems to many of us that a political figure can say anything and the press will cover it as 'one side of the story' or a 'controversy' even when it's entirely made up. It would be great if the press would stop circling the wagons and acknowledge a major failing on this specific issue.
I love anybody who stirs up these stuck 'n the mud ideologues, especially when the media's in a love affair with them. Go Donald!
Racism (yawn), please.
@ ecgberht
Maybe you can follow the story here........
If you or I served in the military, those records should be part of the government, since they pay you. Do you follow? It is not an issue of whether he had to serve or not. The records disappeared and he refused to speak about it. Does that clarify it for you. Sheesh, the way people try to change the argument is truly pitiful.
You can not discuss the entire "birther" thing and other attacks without talking about the racism behind it. To pretend as your panel does that it is rooted in other things is to ignore American history.
Shame on you.
I have never questioned the fact that President Obama was born in Hawaii. However, I do not understand why he expended large sums of money to defend lawsuits that requested the release of his birth certificate. I believe that helped fuel the "conspiracy theory" that has been so distracting to our country. Do any of your guests have an opinion as to why he did this? Thank you. RL Mercer
admandondraper wrote:
"If you or I served in the military, those records should be part of the government"
Then why aren't they? Perhaps the black helicopters spirited them away?
The question is WHETHER SOMEONE IS QUALIFIED TO BE PRESIDENT IF THEY ARE NOT A NATURAL BORN CITIZEN. Get it?
Sheesh, the way people try to change the argument is truly pitiful.
By the way, it is apparent that Obama is qualified based on his BC. Based on his policies of the past two years ... not so much. That's what's going to lose him the election in 2012.
I am listening to the Friday News Roundup and can't believe what I am hearing. Why are the reporter afraid to call the President's birth certificate issue for what it is and that is that he is a black man and too many white people feel that no black person is qualified to be in the "White House"
Let's face it, if President Obama were the "status quo" politician we wouldn't be having these discussions with regard to birthplace. Please be open and upfront in these types of discussions, this absolutely is race motivated. Never in the history of the presidency have there been so much disrespect for the office of the President of the United States. Thanks.
6 out of 10 Americans disapprove of how Obama's doing with the economy, must be racism because this economy is fantastic!
Of course the economy is not growing - the CPI specifically excludes the prices of food and fuel - what other costs effect actual consumers more than food and fuel?
As long as the economists are not feeling any true connection to reality there is no chance for reality to be understood.
Polyticks should have their pay and bennies cut to the same level as We=The-People have to live with. Stop with the blood sucking and feel reality.
Huge Doubt wrote:
"Never in the history of the presidency have there been so much disrespect for the office of the President of the United States."
Were you forgetting about the Bush years? Have you ever seen Daily Kos (I'm betting daily). Do you remember the Alfred E Newman images of Bush, Bush as an ape, etc., etc?
Yeah, hainc. I agree the economy sucks! I guess, someone has to play the "fall guy". In my previous post I was referring to the race/birth certificate issue which everyone is ignoring. Thanks.
@ ecgberht
The media was so mean to President Bush.....the man who said anyone responsible for outing Valerie Plame would be punished.....Dick Cheney, Karl Rove.......oh yeah, Scooter Libby's sentence was commuted. Impeachable offenses given a slap on the wrist. Oh and those draft records. Still waiting on their release.
Ecgberht, thank you so much for the history lesson. It doesn't matter what color or political affiliation I would just like some intelligent and honest discussion.
The birther's demand for more and different types of proof of Obama's right to hold the Presidency reminds many blacks of how we had to prove right to vote and yet were turned away from the polls in the South only a generation ago..
Trump's suggestion that Obama's stellar graduate and law school career was somehow suspect because of affirmative action is the racism that my generation has had to live through.
I think it is proper for the media to expose this racism for what it is.
Politics is tough, mud gets slung. These are all big boys and girls and they don't need to be defended by people who see isms where ever they look.
The cause of him having the lowest approval rating during his presidency at this moment is about results.
Whiners on the right want Obama gone and they came up with this BC issue and Obama played along. Whiners on the left wanted Bush gone before he won his second term and came up with the baseless voter fraud allegations, among others, that went nowhere despite the media being all to ready to give them air time. Both are big boys who can take it.
The comments this morning about the "decline of trust in institutions" follow the same line of reasoning as most others in this debate, equating the federal government with all institutions.
At the heart of this decline in trust is the matter of whether we should continue to turn over the responsibility, authority, and funding for the ever-expanding array of domestic activities in which we see the Federal government engaged today.
If you're not persuaded by the importance of following our nation's Constitution, one can turn to simply the matter of effectiveness: In any sector, is a large, monopolistic organization more likely or less likely to innovate and implement a wide variety of efforts to address the many challenges faced by those with health, housing, employment, or educational challenges?
Indeed, many of us have tremendous confidence in the positive impact of the tens and tens of thousands of smaller public and private institutions--not in every single one, of course, but in a competitive marketplace of ideas and programs to respond the important needs we face.
It's not a decline in faith in all institutions, but a strong belief that we each have obligations to one another, and that turning those over the Federal government will be no more effective in the future than it has been in the past.
Elle in DC:
"Trump's suggestion that Obama's stellar graduate and law school career was somehow suspect because of affirmative action is the racism that my generation has had to live through."
Trump is not saying that his "stellar" graduate and law school career is suspect because of affirmative action. He's saying it because that is what some people who knew the President back then have said.
The way black people have been treated in this country is horrendous. I agree completely. Condoleeza Rice calls slavery "our birth defect". I think that's a great description. How could a country founded in freedom and self-determination allow it? But, you cannot deny that affirmative action exists and that it has even been codified. I'm not even saying that's a bad thing, although I think, in the big picture, it has hurt the progress of African Americans in this country.
This is another one that the President can put to bed. I have an advanced degree from one of the top 10 schools in the country. If someone asked me for a transcript, instead of being offended, I'd be proud to show it. They'd have it before you could say "Jack Robinson".
Barack Obama did not simply "make" law review. He was the Harvard Law Review president.
"The Harvard Law Review, generally considered the most prestigious in the country, elected the first black president in its 104-year history today. The job is considered the highest student position at Harvard Law School.
The new president of the Review is Barack Obama, a 28-year-old graduate of Columbia University who spent four years heading a community development program for poor blacks on Chicago's South Side before enrolling in law school..."
http://www.nytimes.com/1990/02/06/us/first-black-elected-to-head-harvard...
Considering this birther issue could have been put to rest at the start only clarifies the cynical nature of President Obama. To facilitate an apparent racial divide in our country is the opposite of what a true leader is supposed to do. It is also apparent that most of perceived racial aspect of the issue is coming from the left not the right. The fact that this issue is alive and discussed at this level is directly Mr. Obamas fault. And both sides are performing for a sick puppet master.
So is this all the left has these days support Obama or your a racist! Great platform for 2012.
You are misinformed. Obama did not spend "large sums of money to defend lawsuits that requested the release of his birth certificate." This has been well-covered by news outlets (that actually express news).
The statement "Donald Trump claims Obama has spent $2 million in legal fees defending lawsuits about his birth certificate" has been evaluated and rated as false.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/apr/12/donald-tr...
When you get your "facts" from the likes of Donald Trump, Fox News, Limbaugh, etc., you will be misinformed.
ecgberht wrote:
admandondraper wrote: "Did we ever get George Bush's National Guard Duty records?"
There isn't a Constitututional requirement that a POTUS be a National Guardsman. There is a requirement that he be born in the United States.
===============================================
Yes. However, if President Bush failed to serve while assigned at Alabama then his status was AWOL or maybe deserter. Pretty serious, especially during time of war, if you ask me.
The birthers are ignoring two obvious aspects of this whole “conspiracy”:
1) How was the President even able to get a copy of the long-form certificate? Hawaii isn’t supposed to release that. Was there a “back room deal”? Is this a case of “affirmative action”? Are there “special privileges” for the leader of the free world?
2) Then there’s the solution to the birther mystery. Clearly it’s all part of the plot of “the Master” (that evil Timelord) to rule the Universe. He used his TARDIS to travel back in time and plant the fake documents (including the contemporaneous newspaper birth announcements), and also hypnotized the people who’ve claimed they knew Obama “back when” into believing they saw the President in Hawaii as a child.