Daily Texan article 7/7Thomas said the country's move to the political right since the time of the Reagan administration and the reversal of policies such as Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society" social welfare plan represent the "loss of a bygone era when we had a government that cared about the people."
Bush's leadership in the war on terror has been poor, all justifications for the invasion of Iraq have been proven false and the administration's go-at-it-alone approach has alienated allies and eroded American trust, Thomas said. While not to underestimate the threat of terrorism, leaders should find the root causes and seek diplomatic solutions, she said.
"I've never known our country to be in a worse shape - brotherless, soulless, compassionless," she said.
In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, the Washington press corps "took a holiday," abandoning their watchdog role with most reporters being afraid to ask tough questions from fear of seeming unpatriotic, she said.
Helen Thomas was fabulous last night in Austin. What a pleasure to meet the first lady of the press. I really wanted her to say bush was "the worst president ever", but she actually kept it very polite. Although she laughed when the man introducing her said she'd now been relegated to the back row of the white house press room, and the audience booed loudly. The Texas Writer's League had expected a crowd of about 300 but they got 700 instead. The Hotel was very accommodating in opening up additional rooms to expand the ballroom. She was funny, she was sharp and she was gracious in her talk. She got several standing ovations. There was a Q&A and she signed her book as well. The book line was probably 200-300 people.
Where are the next generation of Helen Thomas journalists?
Sonia
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
