John Kerry Sets Katie Couric Straight on Bush’s SOTU (Transcript & Video)

[kerrygoddess]

John Kerry Sets Katie Couric Straight on Bush’s SOTU
February 1st, 2006 @ 9:10 am

John Kerry was on the Today Show this morning discussing Bush’s State of the Union address last night. Couric didn’t seem to like what she was hearing from Kerry and got a little fiesty in her defense of Bush.

Kerry wasn’t phased by Couric’s flustered, somewhat combative defense of Bush and clearly he wasn’t buying into what she was saying.


Watch the Video here.

“The average American is struggling… He didn’t tell the real State of the Union. He didn’t challenge America to rise to the occassion.”

Kerry Is Interviewed On NBC’S “Today Show” - TRANSCRIPT February 01, 2006

FULL TRANSCRIPT & VIDEO LINK - http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=1824

[TechBear_Seattle]

1. But it is still, somehow, the liberal media n/t

[Cha]

2. Thank you!

I'm gonna hear that when I get back!!

[LeftNYC]

3. Katie is bucking hard for a raise...nt

[stevedeshazer]

4. When I saw this on 'Today', I was spitting mad

It was so bad that Kerry LAUGHED at her at the end. He was great.

Also, that graphic, "DO DEMOCRATS HAVE A PLAN?" was so obvious. John Kerry's plans about energy independence are well-known. Couric's supposed to be the "journalist" here, so why was she clueless? Never mind, rhetorical question.

[kerrygoddess]

6. LOL! Yes he did!

I was laughing at her too.

[blm]

12. Katie didn't pay attention to Kerry's energy policies DURING the campaign.

Now she demands he agree with Bush's meager proposals?

How stupid does she think the public is these days? She can't spin faster than Katrina anymore.

[gasperc]

61. Does Karl Rove have an asshole?

Karl come up with new meme this one's boring the dead.

[Lerkfish]

5. here's the deal with the media...

If they have both democrats and republicans on, they outnumber the democrats or pick DINO democrats like lieberman.
If they have only republicans on, they don't interrupt them.
If they have only democrats on, they become the advocate for the right, and interrupt as much as possible, while delivering unsubstantiated RW talking points.

I have not yet seen any instance where they had a STRONG democrat evenly matched, or god forbid a panel with more liberals than conservatives.

[calico1]

9. I think a lot of people in the media including

Katie do not want to be viewed as having "Liberal bias" which they have always have been accused of having by the right. So they go out of their way to appear "fair" by treating Democrats like they are under interrogation, talking over them and limiting them to a few minutes (like Kerry pointed out). Then with Republicans they let them talk all they want, treat them with kid gloves and are all smiley and friendly with them. Even though the Democrats are in the minority and the Republicans are in control of everything, this is being even handed to people like Couric. In this bizarro world we are living I'm sure she goes home every day and congratulates herself on how "balanced" her treatment of Democrats and Republicans is. :eyes:

[Demeter]

10. What About Basic Intellectual Abilities?

Or is that too much to expect from media personalities?

[calico1]

11. I wonder the same thing. n/t

[Catamount]

7. I love the way he laughs in the end!!

[Brotherjohn]

8. You know what her script was based on: "DO DEMOCRATS HAVE A PLAN?"

In large capital letters under Kerry for most of his air time.

"STATE OF THE UNION: DO DEMOCRATS HAVE A PLAN?"

Puh-LEEAASSEE!

They even went to far as to quote a single poll number (out of the many incredibly negative ones for Bush) saying that 63% feel the Dems do not have a good plan.

Is THAT what the SOTU is about, or is it about, um... the SOTU!

Besides, Kerry proceeded to lay out the specific energy plan he proposed in the past, and other specifics, and Couric just ignored him (despite the fact that he was answering the big bold question that was supposed to be the "theme" of the spot).

This wasn't about getting Dems ideas on the issues, or even about finding out what alternative plans the Democrats might have. It was an attempted "hit", trying to paint Democrats as floundering and "without a plan".

Really, Katie, we all know who is floundering and without a plan. He was the one speaking LAST night.

[Coexist]

13. Holy cow - from the reports on DU this morning -

I thought Katie tore him apart.

Kerry was great. Wow. I am very happy with that interview - she tried to attack him and the Dems, and he countered EVERY point well - and didn't ramble on like he usually does - he kept my attention the entire time.

Way to go, Senator Kerry.

[Vektor]

19. Katie doesn't have the intellectual capacity

or the required wit to tear Kerry apart. He's got about 50 IQ points on her, she cannot maintain control of her unstable emotions, and she always comes across as sounding petulant and shrill.


Her voice is like nails on the chalkboard...ick.

[Coexist]

20. and lately she seems to enjoy using her glasses as a prop

to bring home a point.

:eyes:

[Vektor]

21. Hahaha. Maybe she thinks they make her look smart.

Desired effect NOT achieved.

[kerrygoddess]

24. JK ripped her!

I had not even had my coffee yet when it came on - my eyes popped open and I was energized for the whole day!

[Yollam]

14. He did an excellent job.

With the exception of the 53% flub, he made a much better response to POS Bush's little speech than Kaine did.

(As a frequent Kerry detractor - it's nice to be able to say something nice about him! :))


:applause:

[karynnj]

17. He should very proactively get the show the correct statement

he meant - some on DKos think it's for urban blacks and hispanics. Whatever he meant even the best numbers are really not good. Someone claiming to be in the education field on DKos says there is a new study that finds of entering 8th graders 68-72% graduate. The DOE number apparently looks at incoming 12th graders and says what % graduate. (caveat: I personally know nothing about this and am just quoting comments>)

Kerry's point, that too mnay kids are getting a very inadequate education, is very accurate. But as a Kerry supporter, I hope he quickly corrects the record.

[sabbat hunter]

22. i cant believe

he wasnt more clear to begin with. he had an opportunity to state it correctly but flubbed it. conservative bloggers are having a field day with it.

[WildEyedLiberal]

23. Who gives a fat stinky fuck what conservative bloggers think?

They have a field day every time Ted Kennedy farts.

[Vektor]

25. HAHAHAHHA

:rofl:

[fooj]

28. OMG! You caught me so off guard!

:rofl:

[WildEyedLiberal]

30. I aim to please.

;)

[fooj]

32. And PLEASE you did.

:applause:

[Ikonoklast]

42. Don't ever do that again!

I just blew a snot bubble out my nose!

A little warning, please, next time.:spray:

[WildEyedLiberal]

44. I have succeeded in life.

And hey, whatsa matter with a little snot bubble now and then?

:P

[neverevergivein]

31. I understand your point

I work with some freeptards who will not let it go. They are going around the office asking everyone if they are part of the 47% that graduated high school. Dumbasses.

[WildEyedLiberal]

33. I think "freeptards" is the operative word here

These intellectual pygmies will seize their grubby little hands on anything that any Democratic leader says that may be misconstrued in any fashion and twist it to make themselves feel "smarter." It's sad; tragic even. Who wants to bet that freepers occupy the lion's share of the lower half of the bell curve of human intelligence?

I wouldn't worry about it. Kerry kicked ass, and anyone within one standard deviation of normal human intelligence knows it. Let the mental midgets shriek and gibber amongst themselves as their kind are wont to do.

[karynnj]

38. He did an excellent job in a very hostile environment

This is an interview, he obviously made an error in what he said possibly because he was clearly trying to not let her in so he could control the interview. Replaying it, he is speaking without the normal breaks between sentences. He obviously didn't qualify something he meant to. He's human

He was able to clearly make a large number of points. There is no one who hasn't misstated statistics. I hope his office will make a correction to the record. This is really not a big deal.

Bush misspeaks almost every time he opens his mouth.

[wisteria]

52. People misspeak all the time, he was not necessarily wrong.

And the Repub blogger, are just looking for someting to pounce on. Maybe we should try planting some lie or some trash and watch them have a field day with it.
So they are blogging about statistics, well maybe Kerry is trying to educate them.

[kerrygoddess]

41. Here's my reply to the wingnuts

Note to Drudge and Malkin: Do The Math on Education
February 1st, 2006 @ 3:26 pm

Both Drudge and Michelle Malkin are making an issue out of what was obviously a mis-speak this morning by John Kerry on the Today Show and the wingnuts have joined in the chorus. It was evident that Kerry gave Couric a bit of thrashing... an now the wingnuts are protesting.

Malkin quotes Kerry saying this morning, “53 percent of our children don’t graduate from high school.” He then goes on to say “Kids don’t have after-school programs.”

Could it be that Kerry was referring to lower income kids and their parents, that rely on after-school programs? You know the ones who’s parents can’t afford college, the ones that rely on Pell Grants — “Only 9 percent of the people eligible in America will be able to get Pell Grants this year, and for the fifth year in a row they’re not going to raise the amount of money to help kids who have a 57 percent increase in their costs of education be able to pay for it.”

Drudge and Malkin dredged up up the 2003 Census Report that shows “that 84 percent of Americans over the age of 25 are high school grads.” Malkin failed to correctly quote the Census Report — Percent of People 25 Years and Over Who Have Completed High School (Including Equivalency), Population 25 years and over (State level).

I did the math on this — and I am no statistics major, but it seems to me that if the data reported was from 2003, and most of the people surveyed in 2003 were 25 or older, that would mean that they graduated from High School on or before 1996 - given average age of 18 for high school graduates.

Just yesterday the L.A. Times published a story on high school drop out rates.

Statistics Versus Reality

The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University, in conjunction with UCLA, produced a controversial report last spring saying that official dropout statistics in California’s largest school districts were shockingly out of sync with reality. The researchers found that only 48% of the L.A. Unified students who started ninth grade in 1999 graduated four years later.

MORE & LINKS - http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=1827

[hopeisaplace]

15. Kerry was awesome, Katie made the media look typical ...

media loves republicans...the reason it comes across that way is that you
don't see republican politicians grilled in this way - rarely if ever -
Media only allows journalists etc to go full force on Democrats, that is
so obvious its hysterical.

My hubby just watched this and said "how come this guy isn't the President"..
I explained Ohio, Diebold to him long ago - he's aware...he then said that
it's a joke what's going on (of course it's not a joke, but you know what I
mean)...

Kerry was awesome though. To bad they don't put the democratic big guns on the
news very often. And I turned off CNN today - why was * talking for so long???
what in the world was that about. I flipped it to Canadian news, faster than you
can say "I have health care".

[Blue_In_AK]

16. Kerry sounding rational and reasonable as always...

Katie sounding a little defensive. "But you're not blaming the MEDIA, are you?" Please....

[underpants]

18. That's the trump card

No one DARE blame the media for anything. If you do they turn on you but then what the hell do we have to lose?

[texpatriot2004]

26. Kerry is right nm

[MellowOne]

27. She obviously was informed enough to state a good case

against him, only ask general questions. In other words, she believe what she is told or hears in the media without really investigating on her own.

[Dr Fate]

29. "Candidate" Kerry catching up to "President Kerry"

Those of us who thought "he would make a GREAT President, but he is a lack-luster CANDIDATE" are being proved wrong.

[HughBeaumont]

34. RNBC and Katie Whoreic - We're Republican and PROUD!

It's almost like parody the way she trots out negative dem stats. The whole interview was an interruption-filled, Rove orchestrated pounce which Kerry smacked da HELL down with no mercy as usual. There are plenty of clear messages that Kerry talked about, but Whoreic was more interested in attacking. I'd expect nothing less from Ms. "Navy Seals Rock!" and she didn't disappoint there.

[Uncle Joe]

35. Katie is obviously thin skinned about this issue,

COURIC: Oh, you can’t blame it all on the media, Senator, can you?

I say hell yes, the media including Katie Couric sold out the American People years ago. If they had just come close to doing a credible job with at least an ounce of integrity instead of trashing our best and brightest and enabling our most corrupt and incompetent to power all for their own agenda, the world would not be in this mess. Our millionaire pundits will never be able to wash the blood from their hands. In the mangled words of John Paul Jones, we have just begun to blame.

[Sparkly]

36. Wow, she was truly HORRIBLE!!!

I'd read that she was bad, but I thought maybe she was just giving GOP talking points in order to allow Kerry to respond to them. But NO -- she was outright antagonistic!! Karl Rove wouldn't have said it any differently!!

Sheeeeeesh!!!

Kerry did a good job in getting in so many specifics in a short time.

[ohtransplant]

37. Kerry was excellent

and kept his cool even though she kept interrupting him. Keep fighting Senator! More and more Americans have your back every day.

Freeptards laughing at a mis-statement? Really? That's an interesting thought...

*, Darth Cheney, Rummy, et al must keep them in stitches then.

[LittleClarkie]

39. All I wanna do is feed him

He's looking too thin again. Like he did in 2004 when he was campaigning.

[barbtries]

40. i'm playing the video

and she is so fucking pro bush i don't think i can watch anymore.

EVERY goddam thing coming out of katie couric's mouth is rah rah bush rah rah bush - can it be true that she is ignorant? i never thought she was evil...

then with what happened to cindy sheehan, alito getting the position, jeezus. too too much frustration and no where to put it

[jenndar]

43. He kicked ass. n/t

[Montauk6]

45. AW BULLCRAP!!! "Do the Democrats have a plan?"

Other than shoving distorted bibles down our throats, amassing destructive debt, and surpassing the Soviets in world domination, DO THE REPUBLICANS HAVE A PLAN????

Let me guess: Couric's voice is hoarse from screaming the night before during the STFU like a crazed Beatle fan at Shea Stadium?

[Name removed]

46. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

47. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[YvonneCa]

48. Kerry was OUTSTANDING...

...thank you, KG. Here's my letter to NBC:

>>>>>
>>>>>
I'm a long time Today Show viewer (since back in the 70's). I love Katie, Matt, Al and Ann. But John Kerry NEVER gets a fair shake with your network or many others. Part of the RNC spin is that the Democrats are not united...but no one wants to speak of how united we were in our effort to preserve ANWR and Social Security...now THAT was a story. (But no one covered it.) The biggest thing blocking the Democratic message, in my opinion, IS THE MEDIA. This morning, Katie's questions were all biased toward the RNC spin...and I'm not sure she is even aware of it. EDUCATE yourselves, guys. The country needs to hear what Senator Kerry has to say.
>>>>>
>>>>>

:patriot:

[Name removed]

49. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Mass]

50. Drudge, is that you?

[LittleClarkie]

51. If so, it's kind of odd that he's taking the side of "Katie Communist"

as I've heard her called by some pretty hardcore freepers.

[Andromeda]

53. Go blow, Joe...

yourself.

[LittleClarkie]

56. Ironically, his sig says he supports the troops

With the exception of one Vietnam veteran who ran for president a couple o' years ago, apparently.

[wisteria]

54. Cousin It, is that you,what a kidder you are. Now come on and

tell the truth, you know you love Senator Kerry.

[lady lib]

55. I haven't watched the Today Show in over a year,

and after seeing this interview I can see that the only thing I was missing was more morning aggravation - major aggravation. Katie's turned into another Faux News Stepford whore. ((Big sigh))

Kerry did well, though, and I loved that chuckle at the end. She deserved it.

[saltpoint]

57. NBC should decide if Katie Couric is a newswoman or a talkshow flirt.

I vote for the latter. She is frequently flippant with political figures, and especially with Democrats.

I wrote a letter to NBC about her snarky treatment of Jimmy Carter not long ago.

If television news is the medium, who needs Katie Couric if Christiane Amanpour is on over at CNN?

[WCGreen]

58. The today show is still on........

[PBass]

59. Is Katie Couric the talking head who didn't believe Howard Dean

when he said that Jack Abramoff hadn't given one dime of dirty money to a Democrat?

If so, she's been horrid lately

[zulchzulu]

60. Katie should stick to cute stories about puppies and kitty cats

That's as far as her investigative talents take her...she's America's Smiling Lightweight Buffoon. How this person ever got to her position and how she even thinks she is to be taken seriously is beyond me.

I'm surprised she didn't go into SBVFT talking points after she realized she was being spanked into next week for her incompetence.

[PaDem]

62. Why on earth did Kerry say that 53%

of high school students don't graduate? Less than an hour after Kerry's appearance I received a mass e-mail from a repuke friend lambasting Kerry for quoting the 53% while linking to a Drudge story on this gaffe?

[karynnj]

64. He misspoke - that's the number for hispanic students

From a Harvard study that considers the % of kids entering 9th grade that graduate is 68% - which is abysimal. The number he used is not far from the truth in urban areas - which surprised me. Kerry can clarify (or correct his statement) and make the same point he was making. I hope it draws attention to how bad things are and fosters actions to try to fix this.

He was trying to get his message out clearly in a hostile environment. He did a fantastic job otherwise. He is certainly not unique in misstating a statistic. He will almost certainly correct this and use an accurate number in the future. (As seen from the debates, he is more accurate than most when he gives statistics.)

[zulchzulu]

69. Kerry could easily mend the "gaffe" by saying he was referring to Hispanic

...kids...

If this "gaffe" is to be oddly played out in the MSM, then they need to say it is really 68%...which is awful. But don't hold your breath...

[WildEyedLiberal]

66. Why on earth is that the only sentence in the interview you focus on?

He flubbed. So what? Why don't you send your repuke friend a list of the 304,458 misstatements Bush has ever made? BFD. Why don't you point out the TRUTH in his words when you send your repuke friend the list of Bush's thousands of misstatements?

[PaDem]

67. what makes you think I didn't

It was careless, and it's far from the first time with Kerry.

[Mass]

70. And he is not the only one. All politicians make errors in their

interviews. If Couric was a real reporter, she would have asked the question and he would have been able to correct on the spot. Not a big deal except for those who want to make a big deal out of it.

[PaDem]

63. Why on earth did Kerry say that 53%

of high school students don't graduate? Less than an hour after Kerry's appearance I received a mass e-mail from a repuke friend lambasting Kerry for quoting the 53% while linking to a Drudge story on this gaffe?

[zulchzulu]

71. Ask the Repugs if they think laws written in 1978 are not relevant anymore

REPORTER: The FISA law was implemented in 1978 in part because of revelations that the National Security Agency was spying domestically. What is wrong with that law if you feel you have to circumvent it and, as you just admitted, expand presidential power?

Bush: May I -- if I might, you said that I have to circumvent it. There -- wait a minute. That's a -- there's something -- it's like saying, you know, you're breaking the law. I'm not. See, that's what you've got to understand. I am upholding my duty, and at the same time, doing so under the law and with the Constitution behind me. That's just very important for you to understand. Secondly, the FISA law was written in 1978. We're having this discussion in 2006. It's a different world. And FISA is still an important tool. It's an important tool. And we still use that tool. But also -- and we -- look -- I said, look, is it possible to conduct this program under the old law? And people said, it doesn't work in order to be able to do the job we expect us to do.

White House, Jan. 26, 2006

Can we all just reject laws written from 1978 or before like Chimpy seems to think?

[election_2004]

65. Couric is a Democrat....

Of course, when she interviews Hillary prior to Sen. Clinton's "inevitable" presidential run, Little Miss Dynamo will be slobbering all over Hillary and making lovey-dovey googly eyes at her.

Nope, nothing but air between Couric's ears.....

[zulchzulu]

68. Downloadable video and MP3

For those who want an archive or are on Linux/Macs... (6:45)

Windows Media (8MB)

MP3 (9MB)