Huckabee makes ‘joke’ about Obama avoiding a gunman.
Speaking before a National Rifle Association convention today, former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee — and ardent supporter of Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) campaign — was interrupted by an “unexpected offstage noise” and commented that perhaps Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) was ducking a gunman:
“That was Barack Obama, he just tripped off a chair, he’s getting ready to speak,” said the former Arkansas governor, to audience laughter. “Somebody aimed a gun at him and he dove for the floor.”
Politico’s Ben Smith notes, “Joking about Obama getting shot at is probably not the fast track to veephood.”
UPDATE: CNN aired the Huckabee clip. The conservative pundit, the liberal pundit, and host Wolf Blitzer all agreed the joke was made in very poor taste. “I’m sure the Secret Service wouldn’t be happy with those jokes either,” said Blitzer. Watch it:
Lawmakers Respond To Bush: ‘Bullsh*t’ And ‘Malarkey’ That Is ‘Beneath The Dignity’ Of The Oval Office
Lawmakers Respond To Bush: ‘Bullsh*t’ And ‘Malarkey’ That Is ‘Beneath The Dignity’ Of The Oval Office
In strong terms today, Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE), the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, criticized President Bush’s remarks to the Israeli parliament that Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Democrats favor a policy of appeasement toward terrorists. Biden said it was “bullsh*t” and “malarkey” for the president of the United States to go to a foreign country “and make this kind of ridiculous statement.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) directed sharp words towards the president as well, saying that Bush’s comments were “‘beneath the dignity of the office of the president and unworthy of our representation” at the celebration of Israel’s 60th anniversary. Watch it:
House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel also noted that Bush had broken from the tradition that “when a U.S. president is overseas, partisan politics stops at the water’s edge.” “President Bush has now taken that principle and turned it on its head: for this White House, partisan politics now begins at the water’s edge,” said Emanuel. He added, “Does the president have no shame?”
In a statement, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said: “Not surprisingly, the engineer of the worst foreign policy in our nation’s history has fired yet another reckless and reprehensible round.”
Earlier today, Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) said that Bush “ought to apologize to the American people” while noting that the “Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense have both favored negotiations with Iran.”
Perino: Bush’s Comments Were Not ‘Aimed’ At Obama, But Do ‘Include’ Him
Perino: Bush’s Comments Were Not ‘Aimed’ At Obama, But Do ‘Include’ Him
During today’s press gaggle, reporters pressed White House Spokeswoman Dana Perino about President Bush’s comments implying that Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Democrats favor a policy of appeasement toward terrorists. Perino denied that Bush was taking aim directly at Obama, stating that presidential candidates often believe “the world revolves around you.”
However, she wouldn’t refute that his comments were meant to include the senator:
Q: But, so, not aimed at him — do they include him?
PERINO: He’ll have to speak for himself as to what his policy is and you guys can know it well. This was a speech that the President gave to the Knesset. And this is not a new statement by President Bush. This is long-established United States policy, so it should come as no surprise that President Bush suggests that we should not be talking with these people.
Perino’s comments contradict what Bush administration aides are admitting privately. As CNN’s Ed Henry reported earlier today:
White House aides are acknowledging that this was a reference to the fact that Sen. Obama and other Democrats have publicly said that it would be ok for the U.S. President to meet with leaders like the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad.
NBC’s John Yang also said that a White House official told him that Bush’s comments were aimed not only at Obama, but at former President Jimmy Carter and his suggestion that the United States talk with Hamas.
In Speech Before Israeli Parliament, Bush Compares Democrats To Nazi-Appeasers
In Speech Before Israeli Parliament, Bush Compares Democrats To Nazi-Appeasers
While delivering an address before the Israeli parliament commemorating the 60th anniversary of Israel, President Bush said that Sen. Barack Obama and Democrats favor a policy of appeasement toward terrorists. CNN reports that Bush was comparing Obama to “other U.S. leaders back in the run-up to World War II who appeased the Nazis.”
In his speech, Bush said, “As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: ‘Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.’ We have an obligation to call this what it is – the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.”
CNN’s Ed Henry reported that, while “President Bush never uttered the words Barack Obama,” his White House sources tell him it was clearly intended to be a partisan shot:
White House aides are acknowledging that this was a reference to the fact that Sen. Obama and other Democrats have publicly said that it would be ok for the U.S. President to meet with leaders like the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad.
Watch it:
President Bush may want to take up his head-in-the-sand views with his own Defense Secretary. Just yesterday, Robert Gates said the U.S. needs to “sit down and talk with” Iran:
“We need to figure out a way to develop some leverage…and then sit down and talk with them,” Gates said. “If there is going to be a discussion, then they need something, too. We can’t go to a discussion and be completely the demander, with them not feeling that they need anything from us.”
Bush’s cross-continental partisan assault upends the traditional notion that U.S. politics should stop “at the water’s edge.” Reacting to Bush’s comments, Obama issued this statement: “It is sad that President Bush would use a speech to the Knesset on the 60th anniversary of Israel’s independence to launch a false political attack. It is time to turn the page on eight years of policies that have strengthened Iran and failed to secure America or our ally Israel.”
T-shirts for sale in Georgia compare Obama to ‘Curious George.’
T-shirts for sale in Georgia compare Obama to ‘Curious George.’
Mike Norman, a bar owner in Marietta, GA, who is peddling t-shirts that feature “a look-a-like of cartoon chimp Curious George peeling a banana, with ‘Obama in ‘08′ underneath” claims that the shirts are “not meant to offend,” despite his acknowledgment of “the imagery’s Jim Crow roots“:
Norman acknowledged the imagery’s Jim Crow roots but said he sees nothing wrong with depicting a prominent African-American as a monkey.
“We’re not living in the (19)40’s,” he said. “Look at him…the hairline, the ears — he looks just like Curious George.”
Radar notes that Norman could have been inspired by listening to Rush Limbaugh, who apologized on-air earlier this year after laughing at a caller’s suggestion that Obama “looks like Curious George.”
Kristol ‘Looks Down’ On Majority Of Americans: Calls Them ‘Feckless’ And Unserious
Kristol ‘Looks Down’ On Majority Of Americans: Calls Them ‘Feckless’ And Unserious
In his New York Times column earlier this week, Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol decried Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-IL) now-infamous “bitter” comments as being “disdainful of small-town America.” “What has Barack Obama accomplished that entitles him to look down on his fellow Americans?” questioned Kristol.
But on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show yesterday, Kristol himself appeared quite “disdainful” of the majority of Americans who are weary of the war in Iraq, implying that many of them are neither “decent” nor “serious,” but rather “feckless”:
KRISTOL: Every time there’s a little flare up, even if the flare up turns out to be for the better, which is what happened in Basra over the last few weeks, and none the less they go, “oh my God, can’t we get out of this.” So there’s a real weariness. Even amongst some decent people of just you know, it seems kind of there’s no end, there’s no clear, there’s no clarity. … And are we going to be such a feckless country, frankly, that we’re going to waste the sacrifices that have been made, snatch defeat and retreat out of the jaws of success and victory. … I’m moderately hopeful that the country gets beyond the kind of weariness and annoyance about the war and gets serious about the world we live in.
Listen here:
A poll released today by ABC News and the Washington Post, found that “views on the Iraq war have…turned more negative, with six in 10 now rejecting the notion that the United States needs to win there to effectively battle terrorism.” Apparently to Kristol, these 60% of Americans are “feckless,” which is defined as either “ineffective; incompetent; futile” or “having no sense of responsibility; indifferent; lazy.”
Additionally, the poll — which was conducted “after congressional testimony about the war” by Gen. David Petraeus and Amb. Ryan Crocker — found that the majority of Americans, including an increasing share of Republicans, “say the United States should withdraw its military forces to avoid further casualties”:
Moreover, while Bush remains committed to keeping more than 100,000 U.S. troops in Iraq through the rest of his presidency, 56 percent of Americans say the United States should withdraw its military forces to avoid further casualties. This has been the majority view since January 2007.
On several measures, the poll finds Republicans inching away from support for the war. Among them, a sense that progress in Iraq has stalled has increased 13 points from early March, and the percentages who prefer withdrawing troops over risking more casualties (30 percent) and who think that the battle against terrorism can be a success without victory in Iraq (39 percent) are each at new highs.
Perhaps the question should be asked: What has Bill Kristol “accomplished that entitles him to look down on his fellow Americans?”
O’Reilly redefines ‘fair and balanced’: Find people who hate both Democrats.
O’Reilly redefines ‘fair and balanced’: Find people who hate both Democrats.
Last night, Bill O’Reilly offered the newest definition of Fox News’s “Fair and Balanced” slogan: Bring on guests who hate both Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Barack Obama (D-IL). Following a segment with Karl Rove — who trashed Obama — O’Reilly introduced conservative pundit Dick Morris to trash Clinton:
O’REILLY: OK now, Karl Rove doesn’t really like Barack Obama as a political figure in this country. It’s obvious. And you really don’t like Hillary Clinton as a political figure in this country. So we figure we’d balance off the debate.
Watch it:
Of course, neither Rove nor Morris said anything about Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).
AUDIO: Hannity Feeds Stephanopoulos Debate Question On Weather Underground
AUDIO: Hannity Feeds Stephanopoulos Debate Question On Weather Underground
Last night’s ABC News Democratic presidential candidates debate was co-moderated by George Stephanopoulos and Charlie Gibson, but the unseen influence of Fox News’ Sean Hannity was also on stage.
Hannity, who for months has been aggressively pushing a story about Barack Obama’s connections to a former member of a radical anti-Vietnam 1970s organization called the Weather Underground, interviewed Stephanopoulos on his radio show on Tuesday, where he pressed the ABC host to ask Obama about this:
HANNITY: There are two questions that I don’t think anybody has asked Barack Obama, and I don’t know if this is going to be on your list tomorrow. One is – the only time he’s ever been asked about his association with Bill Ayers, the unrepentant terrorist from the Weather Underground who on 9/11 of all days in the New York Times was saying “I don’t regret setting bombs. I don’t think we did enough.” When asked about it by the Politico, David Axelrod said that they have a friendly relationship, and that they had done a number of speeches together and that they sat on a board together. Is that a question you might ask?
STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, I’m taking notes right now.
HANNITY: September 11, 2001 of all days, there was an article in the New York Times. And there are a number of quotes about Bill Ayers. The Politico had in there the comments from David Axelrod.
Listen here:
In the debate last night, Stephanopoulos asked a question that mirrored almost word-for-word what Hannity pressed him to ask:
STEPHANOPOULOS: A gentleman named William Ayers, he was part of the Weather Underground in the 1970s. They bombed the Pentagon, the Capitol and other buildings. He’s never apologized for that. And in fact, on 9/11 he was quoted in The New York Times saying, “I don’t regret setting bombs; I feel we didn’t do enough.”
An early organizing meeting for your state senate campaign was held at his house, and your campaign has said you are friendly. Can you explain that relationship for the voters, and explain to Democrats why it won’t be a problem?
Watch it:
The Washington Post’s Tom Shales writes today, “ABC News, which hosted the debate from Philadelphia and whose usually dependable anchors, Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos, turned in shoddy, despicable performances.” The debate moderators were heckled after the debate, prompting Gibson to react. “Oh…” he declared, hands raised in defense. “The crowd is turning on me, the crowd is turning on me.”
Not everyone was upset about the debate. The New York Times’ David Brooks writes, “I understand the complaints, but I thought the questions were excellent.” So does Hannity.
Harvard-graduate Hewitt blasts Obama’s ‘condescending’ ‘Harvard Law School stuff.’
Harvard-graduate Hewitt blasts Obama’s ‘condescending’ ‘Harvard Law School stuff.’
Yesterday on Fox News’s Hannity and Colmes, right-wing pundit Hugh Hewitt blasted Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) for being “so condescending.” “In San Francisco, he insulted people of faith,” said Hewitt. “He insulted people who own guns.” Hewitt then took a swipe at Obama’s educational background, stating, “That Harvard Law School stuff, it shows.” Watch it:
Hewitt claimed he was able to make these accusations because he has “Midwestern roots.” Ironically, Obama also has Midwestern roots (who spent decades in Illinois and has a mother born in Kansas), and like Obama, Hewitt graduated from Harvard. Although Hewitt was born in Ohio, he has spent much of his life working in both Los Angeles and Washington, DC.
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