NBC's Todd: Bill Clinton ‘Woefully Unprepared for 21st Century Media’

[futureliveshere]

Ok, I like Chuck Todd. He seems to have his head on his shoulders and talks numbers and strategy without swinging too much to one side. So in this case it was surprising to hear him make these statements which are so true. Then again he does stick to the truth (more than the rest of the MSM)

If there’s one thing that Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) all have in common, it’s that each of the presidential candidates has already endured his or her very own YouTube moment.

But as NBC News political director Chuck Todd sees it, none has gotten burned by this new-media phenomenon quite like former President Bill Clinton.

“It’s fascinating: Nobody’s been a bigger victim of the so-called YouTube moments than Bill Clinton,” Todd said. “I think Bill Clinton was woefully unprepared for 21st Century media.”

Although Clinton caught a glimpse of the digital future when he was president and a little-known Internet gadfly named Matt Drudge broke the Monica Lewinsky story, he was never subjected to the kind of unblinking scrutiny of today’s media environment.

When Clinton was running for president, Todd said, he and his fellow candidates could misspeak -- and even willfully obfuscate -- with relative impunity.

“It was like a Jedi mind trick with him,” he added. “It would take a few days for the media to catch up by then he had moved on.”

But in 2008, Clinton’s gaffes -- calling Obama’s opposition to the Iraq war a “fairy tale,” inviting charges of race-baiting by comparing Obama’s campaign to Jesse Jackson’s, reviving his wife’s Bosnia trip for another spin in the news cycle -- sparked immediate blowback that seems to have caught him by surprise..

Bubba seems to be losing his infallible political acumen this time around. Oops, make that "lost" his political acumen.

[livetohike]

1. Out with the old politics and in with the new

:-).

[LSparkle]

4. Amen!

[Cha]

17. Out with the dinos ..

In with the Meteorites!

[the other one]

2. Fuck Chuck. nt

[futureliveshere]

7. Go right ahead

:)

[Doityourself]

3. I saw one punkdit say, Clinton is behind the technology 8 ball..it appears he doesn't understand the

speed and rate at which everything is recorded and sent out into the public.

[futureliveshere]

6. Yup, like when he made the remarks on Radio and later denied them.

[Doityourself]

8. Bingo! There is no delay now...

[futureliveshere]

12. Exactly, The jedi force seems to be leaving him..:)

[Cha]

18. Yeah, a freakin' inveterate liar like

bil clinton doesn't stand a chance. Too bad the m$$$fm is covering for his like minded wife.

[graycem]

5. Indeed..

I can't imagine where we'd be without "the google" and YouTube and the rest of the internets giving us all this power. Imagine if we had to rely on regular media, ugh!

[liberaldem4ever]

9. I really like Chuck Todd

He is very smart and cute too. :)

[calmblueocean]

10. Honestly, this is crap.

A) Most of Clinton's actual "YouTube moments" have involved him wagging a finger at some disruptor, and none of them have been scandals. The "gaffes" they point out are all moments directly created by the cable news media.

B) They are just more manufactured scandals, and in that way are no different than the zillions of manufactured scandals we saw in the 90s.

The cable news media has to fill 24 hours a day, so they fill it with nonsense, contrived soundbites, and spin. They say whatever they want, and repeat it until it becomes "conventional wisdom". Some of us remain unfooled.

[futureliveshere]

11. Good for you calmblue.. Though that was not the point of the OP. Good for you.

[calmblueocean]

13. Seems on point to me, but I've been known to be dumb.

I should say that ever since Chuck Todd forced Dennis Kucinich out of a debate that he had formally been invited to and been accepted at, I don't have a lot of respect for the man.

But the post as I read it was about how Clinton is supposedly losing his political acumen because he can't deal with the hyperscrutiny of 21st century technology, and I pointed out how that's pretty blatantly untrue.

[futureliveshere]

16. Well lets see...

1. The Jesse Jackson comment
2. The fairy tale remark
3. The defending Boznia remark
4. The remark on radio about race card

Maybe losing political acumen is too strong. But I stand by the rest of the post. He does not seem to appreciate the digital reporting age. IMHO. That was the point I am trying to make.

[speedoo]

14. Todd has a point.

Things have changed greatly since he was last involved in a national campaign to this extent.

That was in 1996. Where was he in 2000 and 2004?

Well, in 2000 he was of questionable value to Al Gore because of MonicaGate, plus he was kinda busy helping Hillary get elected to the Senate in NY.

And in 2004, he was busy with a book tour. And with Hillary eying 2008, he probably was not all that interested in helping John Kerry anyhow.

Bubba and Hillary are both dead to me now.

[Stinky The Clown]

15. DU's Resident Clown: Clinotn looks pathetic grovelling for a debate

I guess that abets your post.

[eridani]

19. Clinton 2008 = Nixon 1960

In the 21st century, those who don't "get" YouTube will suffer the same fate as politicians in the late 50s who didn't "get" television.

Hillary is just as bad as Bill. The Tuzla lie was really no big deal--padding resumes is what politicians do. What was bad was that she kept on REPEATING THE DAMNED LIE three more times after the YouTube video demonstrating the lie had had a million hits. That's why she's unelectable.