Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search
50 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Steve Schmidt-If Barack Obama was the president of the United States, this would not have happened. (Original Post) Gothmog May 2020 OP
Well said! Tanuki May 2020 #1
Damn Straight! That's Obamagate! Cha May 2020 #2
This message was self-deleted by its author Skittles May 2020 #3
Now he figures it out lame54 May 2020 #4
Me and my wife were screaming Thank you!! when he said this. Solomon May 2020 #5
K & R...for visibility...nt Wounded Bear May 2020 #6
The Obama you tried so hard to defeat in 2008? nt tblue37 May 2020 #7
Biden should hire Steve Schmidt onto his campaign. He knows exactly how to frame stuff. nt Quixote1818 May 2020 #8
We/He surely needs such talent; elleng May 2020 #18
The guy who pushed McCain to pick Palin as his running mate? No Thanks. progressoid May 2020 #19
I didn't think Schmidt was on board with Palin.. mountain grammy May 2020 #32
I haven't seen the film but he did. progressoid May 2020 #36
Thanks I won't have to watch it again mountain grammy May 2020 #37
Who said running mate? I suggested him help run the political campaign nt Quixote1818 May 2020 #47
I didn't mean as running mate either. progressoid May 2020 #49
He is right... Blue Owl May 2020 #9
I don't think it's true that "Ebola is even more contagious than COVID-19" fishwax May 2020 #27
Schmidt was right; it will take years for our country to recover dlk May 2020 #10
Come on, Steve... tell us what you REALLY think! N/T Foolacious May 2020 #11
Yea sure Steve abakan May 2020 #12
BUT, BUT, BUT.....HER EMAILS!!!!! AZ8theist May 2020 #13
This was amusing Gothmog May 2020 #14
Nice crib Steve! All paid for with Republican blood money! Fuck off! BamaRefugee May 2020 #22
Need each other Johnnie Mae May 2020 #40
I like his cute dog 🐕 but Raine May 2020 #34
Lest we forget. Marcuse May 2020 #15
This message was self-deleted by its author ecstatic May 2020 #16
And even though we'd be much, MUCH better off with Obama handling this... Silent3 May 2020 #17
Rational you. Johnnie Mae May 2020 #41
More to the point, if Hillary Clinton were President, this would never have happened. eppur_se_muova May 2020 #20
Steve doesn't spit, he swallows...Republican lies,polishes them, then works to bring down BamaRefugee May 2020 #23
Exactly. Hillary would likely have done an even better job. sop May 2020 #24
Exactly 47of74 May 2020 #31
A little late. zentrum May 2020 #21
piss on Steve Schmidt anyway KG May 2020 #25
Dumb ass states the obvious... Hulk May 2020 #26
Don't ever forget him. Johnnie Mae May 2020 #42
Confederacy of dunces MurrayDelph May 2020 #28
I totally agree. nt Blue_true May 2020 #29
Hell if President Obama was still in office 47of74 May 2020 #30
Obama's tertm was over, there is no way there would've Raine May 2020 #33
I think a lot aobut what-ifs like this and it keeps me up at night. Withywindle May 2020 #35
If this isn't proof that elections have consequences, I don't know what is. Initech May 2020 #38
Memory Lane Johnnie Mae May 2020 #39
K&R Tarheel_Dem May 2020 #43
K&R spanone May 2020 #44
There is no such thing as "Obama-Gate. It doesn't exist. Gothmog May 2020 #45
If Steve Smith and his ilk had not placed party before country we would not be here now pecosbob May 2020 #46
Hold me back! eleny May 2020 #48
Trump would hate for this to have millions of views. Gothmog May 2020 #50

Response to Gothmog (Original post)

elleng

(130,861 posts)
18. We/He surely needs such talent;
Mon May 11, 2020, 10:37 PM
May 2020

it's a critical issue for me, spokespeople to FRAME and VOICE to the public.

mountain grammy

(26,614 posts)
32. I didn't think Schmidt was on board with Palin..
Tue May 12, 2020, 12:08 AM
May 2020

I'll have to watch that movie again.

I'm sick of republicans... damn fascists.

progressoid

(49,969 posts)
36. I haven't seen the film but he did.
Tue May 12, 2020, 12:34 AM
May 2020

Schmidt is portrayed by Woody Harrelson in the HBO film Game Change. The film, based on chapters of the book of the same title by political journalists John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, focuses on the choice of Sarah Palin as John McCain's running mate in the 2008 United States presidential election. Schmidt is shown as pushing for the choice of Palin, then afterward conceding she was unqualified for the job, including that she had a limited knowledge of current affairs.[40] Schmidt himself voiced his approval of the film, saying that "it tells the truth of the campaign"[41] and that watching the film was tantamount to "an out-of-body experience".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Schmidt

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/game-change-sarah-palin-a_b_1325852?ref=politics&ir=Politics

mountain grammy

(26,614 posts)
37. Thanks I won't have to watch it again
Tue May 12, 2020, 12:42 AM
May 2020

Though I loved Woody’s performance and remember he hated her at the end but couldn’t remember the beginning.
Sarah was the beginning of the end of the GOP. To give the fringe that much exposure was ugly.

progressoid

(49,969 posts)
49. I didn't mean as running mate either.
Tue May 12, 2020, 10:21 PM
May 2020

Schmidt was McCain's senior campaign strategist and advisor; and he pushed for Palin to be VP.

Even though he's sort of admitted it was a huge mistake, it doesn't instill confidence in his decision making skills. He shouldn't be anywhere near a Democratic candidate.

Blue Owl

(50,347 posts)
9. He is right...
Mon May 11, 2020, 09:29 PM
May 2020

Excerpt from article at: https://www.facebook.com/david.furnish/posts/10221822441167061

In December 2013, an 18-month-old boy in Guinea was bitten by a bat and died a brutal death a day later. After that, there were five more fatal cases. When Ebola spread out of the Guinea borders into neighboring Liberia and Sierra Leone in July 2014, President Obama activated the Emergency Operations Center at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. The CDC immediately deployed CDC personnel to West Africa to coordinate a response that included vector tracing, testing, education, logistics, and communication.

Altogether, the CDC, under President Obama, trained 24,655 medical workers in West Africa, educating them on how to prevent and control the disease before a single case left Africa or reached the U.S.

Working with the U.N. and the World Health Organization President Obama ordered the re-routing of travelers heading to the U.S. through certain specific airports equipped to handle mass testing.

Back home in America, more than 6,500 people were trained through mock outbreaks and practice scenarios. That was done before a single case hit America.

Three months after President Obama activated this unprecedented response, on September 30, 2014, we detected our first case in the U.S.A. A man had traveled from West Africa to Dallas and somehow slipped through the testing protocol. He was immediately detected and isolated. He died a week later. Two nurses who tended to him contracted Ebola but later recovered. All the protocols had worked. It was contained.

The Ebola epidemic could have easily become a pandemic, but thanks to the actions of our government under President Obama, it never did. Those THREE EBOLA CONFIRMED CASES were the ONLY cases of Ebola in the U.S.A. because Obama did what needed to be done THREE MONTHS PRIOR TO THE FIRST CASE.

Ebola is even more contagious than COVID-19. Had Obama not acted swiftly, millions of Americans would have died horrible, painful, deaths like something out of a horror movie (if you’ve never seen how Ebola kills, it’s horrific).

It is ironic because since President Obama acted decisively we forget about his actions since the disease never reached our shores.

Now the story of COVID-19 and Trump’s response that we know about thus far:

Before anyone even knew about the disease (even in China) Trump disbanded the pandemic response team that Obama had put in place. He cut funding to the CDC, and he cut our contribution to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Trump fired Rear Admiral Timothy Ziemer, the person on the National Security Council in charge of stopping the spread of infectious diseases before they reach our country - a position created by the Obama administration.

When the outbreak started in China, Trump assumed it was China’s problem and sent no research, supplies or help of any kind. We were in a trade war, why should he help them?

In January he received a briefing from our intelligence organizations that the outbreak was much worse than China was admitting and that it would definitely hit our country if something wasn’t done to prevent it. He ignored the report, not trusting our own intelligence.

When the disease spread to Europe, the World Health Organization offered a plethora of tests to the United States. Trump turned them down, saying private companies here would make the tests “better” if we needed them. However, he never ordered U.S. companies to make tests and they had no profit motive to do so on their own.

According to scientists at Yale and several public university medical schools, when they asked for permission to start working on our own testing protocol and potential treatments or vaccines, they were denied by Trump’s FDA.

When Trump knew about the first case in the United States he did nothing. It was just one case and the patient was isolated. When doctors and scientists started screaming in the media that this was a mistake, Trump claimed it was a “liberal hoax” conjured up to try to make him “look bad after impeachment failed.”

The next time Trump spoke of COVID-19, we had SIXTY-FOUR CONFIRMED CASES but Trump went before microphones and told the American public that we only had FIFTEEN cases “and pretty soon that number will be close to zero.” All while the disease was spreading, he took no action to get more tests.

What Trump did was to stop flights from China from coming here. This was too late and accomplished nothing according to scientists and doctors. By then the disease was worldwide and was already spreading exponentially in the U.S. by Americans, not Chinese people as Trump would like you to believe.

As of the moment, I am posting this, we have 1.38 million COVID-19 CONFIRMED CASES and 81,378 COVID-19 DEATHS in the U.S.A. The actual number is undoubtedly more than triple that amount given ongoing limited availability of testing.

fishwax

(29,149 posts)
27. I don't think it's true that "Ebola is even more contagious than COVID-19"
Mon May 11, 2020, 11:15 PM
May 2020

For one thing, Ebola wasn't contagious until it was symptomatic, iirc, and it isn't airborne.

Aside from that detail, there is no doubt that the broader assessment--that Obama administration handled such challenges much better than the incumbent clown college--is accurate.

dlk

(11,541 posts)
10. Schmidt was right; it will take years for our country to recover
Mon May 11, 2020, 09:30 PM
May 2020

We may never be the same thanks to Trump and the GOP.

abakan

(1,819 posts)
12. Yea sure Steve
Mon May 11, 2020, 09:53 PM
May 2020

Let's get in the wayback google machine and see what you were saying, when you were a republican and Obama was President.

AZ8theist

(5,453 posts)
13. BUT, BUT, BUT.....HER EMAILS!!!!!
Mon May 11, 2020, 10:10 PM
May 2020

AND...... The black man in the White House wearing a TAN SUIT!!!

Oh, the HUMANITY!!!!

Johnnie Mae

(35 posts)
40. Need each other
Tue May 12, 2020, 03:48 AM
May 2020

Thank God for waking up. Thank God for those who will help us get rid of that monstrous psychopath. Please welcome even Steve.

Marcuse

(7,475 posts)
15. Lest we forget.
Mon May 11, 2020, 10:29 PM
May 2020

[link:https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/aug/31/uselections2008.barackobama|

More than two dozen Republican staffers were camped in Denver last week, spearheading the latest assaults on Barack Obama who was addressing the Democratic convention nearby. 'We came here to piss the Democrats off,' said one Republican aide with a grin.

They have largely succeeded. Each day new adverts have hammered a relentless drumbeat of negativity, painting Obama as too liberal, too inexperienced and practically a danger to America's future. Leading lights of the Republican universe have paraded in front of the cameras in a disciplined display of party message-making. A typical performance came from former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani. 'There are still a lot of serious questions about Barack Obama's preparedness to lead the country,' Giuliani said, before stepping aside to showcase the latest ad on a huge flat-screen TV.

The ad attacked Obama as being so ignorant of foreign affairs that he was virtually a security threat himself. It touched on scare issues such as Islamic terrorism and Iranian nukes. Then it represented Obama's positions on national security as naive and weak. 'These are contrast ads,' Giuliani said afterwards. 'And both sides do them.'

The current mastermind of the Republican attack machine is known as the Bullet. He is Steve Schmidt, a protégé of Bush's guru, Karl Rove. Nicknamed for his results as much as his bald head, he made his name as commander of the war room that wiped out Democrat John Kerry in 2004. Brought in to shake things up in July, Schmidt imposed discipline on a disorganised campaign. He dissuaded McCain from his off-the-cuff chats with reporters, and honed the focus solely on making Obama unelectable.

Schmidt works on the principles of repeating simple messages loudly and often. Ads attack Obama as a 'celebrity' or a faux-messiah. By doing so they hope to turn Obama's greatest strength - his ability to inspire - into a fatal flaw. That is backed up by another line: that Obama is simply not fit to be president. NotReady08 is the name of a website set up by the campaign. The language can be harsh.

Response to Gothmog (Original post)

Silent3

(15,190 posts)
17. And even though we'd be much, MUCH better off with Obama handling this...
Mon May 11, 2020, 10:37 PM
May 2020

...Obama would have gotten ten times the shit with 10% the caseload and death toll. The Republican hypocrites would have been calling for his head on a platter, and the so-called "liberal" media would have been constantly asking, "Can the Obama presidency survive this crisis?"

Johnnie Mae

(35 posts)
41. Rational you.
Tue May 12, 2020, 03:56 AM
May 2020

Reading & remembering all f this COULD make my blood boil. Right now we need all hands on deck to achieve our goal. It's going to be tough enough to win the election, given all the GOP corruption. Let's stand together & get rid of that demolition man.

eppur_se_muova

(36,258 posts)
20. More to the point, if Hillary Clinton were President, this would never have happened.
Mon May 11, 2020, 10:43 PM
May 2020

Spit it out, Steve.

BamaRefugee

(3,483 posts)
23. Steve doesn't spit, he swallows...Republican lies,polishes them, then works to bring down
Mon May 11, 2020, 10:58 PM
May 2020

exceptionally fine and decent people with them.

 

47of74

(18,470 posts)
31. Exactly
Mon May 11, 2020, 11:38 PM
May 2020

If she was President now we'd actually be at a point where we could wind down the lockdowns and get back to it. We would actually be able to have some events later this summer instead of fall 2028 or 29.

 

Hulk

(6,699 posts)
26. Dumb ass states the obvious...
Mon May 11, 2020, 11:07 PM
May 2020

I didn't need to here this turncoat coward say it. It is obvious to anyone who didn't sleep through two terms of President Obama's administrations that we wouldn't be in this shit show with clown acts filled with lies for the past FIVE FUCKING MONTHS.

President Obama turned around W's incompetent raping of our middle class and the economy and prevented Great Depression II, that this disgusting orange toad has led us straight in to.

Fuck Schmidt, and every other coward repuKKKe who hides from the shame they own. I couldn't care less what this smarmy worm has to say about "what a shit storm" he helped build. Fuck him!

Johnnie Mae

(35 posts)
42. Don't ever forget him.
Tue May 12, 2020, 04:01 AM
May 2020

Thanks for mentioning that other indifferent, cold hearted, I'll concentrating dumbo--gEorge B. He began our demise on a serious note.

 

47of74

(18,470 posts)
30. Hell if President Obama was still in office
Mon May 11, 2020, 11:34 PM
May 2020

We'd be at the point where we really could safely open back up and getting back to a semblance of normal.

Not saying there wouldn't have been an impact, but it would have been a lot fucking lower than 80,000 people dying.

Raine

(30,540 posts)
33. Obama's tertm was over, there is no way there would've
Tue May 12, 2020, 12:15 AM
May 2020

Last edited Tue May 12, 2020, 01:30 AM - Edit history (1)

been an issue of him handling it or not and IMO Schmidt is a dunce who attempted to shove Palin on us!

Withywindle

(9,988 posts)
35. I think a lot aobut what-ifs like this and it keeps me up at night.
Tue May 12, 2020, 12:31 AM
May 2020

I think President Gore would have paid REALLY CLOSE attention to those intelligence memos in August 2001 and done something about it, and while nothing's certain there's a pretty good chance the Twin Towers would still be there and two wars would not have happened.

Initech

(100,061 posts)
38. If this isn't proof that elections have consequences, I don't know what is.
Tue May 12, 2020, 12:50 AM
May 2020

Don't want another coronavirus? Vote for people who will do their damn jobs instead of tweet all day!!

Johnnie Mae

(35 posts)
39. Memory Lane
Tue May 12, 2020, 03:43 AM
May 2020

Thanks for that detailed reminder. I knew President Barack Obama had put together a strong response. Thank u for the details.

pecosbob

(7,534 posts)
46. If Steve Smith and his ilk had not placed party before country we would not be here now
Tue May 12, 2020, 04:55 PM
May 2020

He has justified or normalized each and every GOP dirty trick for decades until now.

Latest Discussions»General Discussion»Steve Schmidt-If Barack O...