Does Leslie Stahl particularly hate JK?

[ginnyinWI]

Or is she just chiming in with the MSM? On 60 Minutes last night she did a piece on Gov. Schweitzer, Montana, and described him as being a Democrat but "the exact opposite of John Kerry", because his image is that he is a regular guy, with a dog, driving around in trucks wearing jeans, etc. :grr:

I remember a pic of this governor with JK when he went on that summer road trip ( while wearing jeans and driving a truck--don't know about the dog, but he was heard to be riding horses!) This is just so maddening--this stereotype JK seems to be stuck with. But I wish media people like Stahl wouldn't make it worse.

As long as I'm grousing: Does The American Prospect also hate JK? They had a little snarky piece about how Wyden gave him some advice before the debates which JK listened to but then didn't use--and they said, "...Wyden may not be presidential timbre. But the anecdote does help explain some things." :grr: :grr:

There are a few more negative references in this month's TAP which are directed against all the Dems, too--and I'm only partway through that issue. (March) All of this at once is hurting my kerrycrat feelings!

[jenndar]

1. Didn't that bile originate from Schweitzer himself?

Doesn't he go around saying stuff like that all the time?

Not to defend Stahl, but IMO, it's worse when Dems to this to Dems than it is when the media does it to Dems.

[whometense]

4. My impression of him is

a lot like my impression of Bill Richardson - both big blowhards who are full of themselves.


Just because they were able to get elected, that doesn't mean every dem ought to be following their blueprint.

[jenndar]

8. Yeah, they've been following an almost identical

"trashing Kerry makes me look cool and authentic" plan.

It just makes them look sad and desperate. I don't care how "regular" you are, if you're not playing nice, you're not playing nice.

[sandnsea]

15. Running away from the national party

That's what they do and like I've said, DeFazio does it too, although he'd never trash a Dem in the process. That's why I think the 50 state strategy is kind of stupid, at least without some sort of unity strategy. We can't have these rural Dems continuing to trash the national platform, and the national platform is not going to change because too many of us blue state voters will pitch a fit. I think we've compromised about as far as we can go on abortion, birth control, gay rights, minority rights, environment. We've just got no give left to give. That 50 state strategy is going to have to include some bridge building with the recognition from those rural states that there won't be a national party without us blue states.

[whometense]

2. Ouch.

I don't have the new Prospect yet, but now I don't even feel like reading it.

How many Clintonians are on board there? Robert Reich has been a good Kerry guy all along.

Oh, and though I haven't read it yet, does it explain exactly why JK ought to have been taking advice from Wyden?

[karynnj]

6. especially on the debates

where Kerry is credited even by the normally hostile press as having been excellent. I've heard Wyden speak in the Senate, frnakly I doubt he could teach Kerry anything. Seriously, what deficits did he have in the debates: he was sharp, clear, articulate, amazingly accurate (considering the detail in his answers), calm, and Presidential. What would you change?

[ginnyinWI]

11. It's in the "Up Front" section where they have short pieces

According to this piece, Wyden advised Kerry to use a story about a hardware store owner to illustrate his health care plan--and thought Kerry agreed. Then at the debate, Kerry used "leaden language" and described the plan in too much detail. I don't know--there was no reason to put this in other than to throw some mud JK's way. Evidently Wyden was talking to TAP about his tax reform plan, and then told them this story. I'm not holding him responsible, only the writer who decided it would make a good article. Thankfully it's really short and not a major hit piece or anything.

I agree with you about Reich and TAP in general--that's why this surprises me.

[TayTay]

3. 60 Minutes has to disparage JK at least twice a month

It's in their post 'we were right about Bush being AWOL during Vietnam and we're so sorry' settlement with the RW. The media is not allowed to report truth on Bush and so must compensate by saying snarky and subjective things about JK forever.

[emulatorloo]

20. You are on to something there -- see Mary Mapes, Rather's producer

on the Killian Memos story, from her book:

<snip>

In early January, before the panel's damning report came out, Broadcasting & Cable magazine reported that CBS News president Andrew Heyward had met with White House communications director Dan Bartlett "in part to repair chilly relations with the Bush administration." According to the story, "Heyward was 'working overtime to convince Bartlett that neither CBS News nor Rather had a vendetta against the White House,' our source says, 'and from here on out would do everything it could to be fair and balanced.'"

I had to laugh at the use of the Fox News slogan by the magazine's source in describing the kind of coverage CBS supposedly promised the White House. Was that a slip of the tongue or a change in CBS's approach to coverage?

<snip>

http://www.vanityfair.com/commentary/content/printables/051114roco01?print=true

[Mass]

5. Some people on TAP do not like particularly Kerry, that is sure,

I have not read this story, but the comment by itself is stupid. Wyden's advice may not have been good. Kerry listened to him, which is the right thing to do.

I heard Leslie Stahl though and I think her comment was more a comment aimed at Schweitzer and his style than a comment at Kerry. Schweitzer did (and he said so) make his campaign as the anti-Kerry. He was wrong in his image of Kerry, I think, but I did not see a judgement in what Stahl said. If anything, I think she was trying to show that the Schweitzer's image was a little too cultivated.

[ginnyinWI]

12. ah, that makes sense then

It also might be the reason JK visited him last summer--keeping your friends close and enemies closer.

[WildEyedLiberal]

7. Was it Matthew Yglesias?

I don't enjoy reading him in TAP - way too snarky and hand-wringing for me. I think his every article follows the same theme - "Dems don't have their act together." :nopity:

If he wrote that piece in the Prospect, then I can forgive it - if it was someone else, I will be deeply troubled. The Prospect is the only liberal magazine I give two craps about - the rest are just lefty freepy polemics (or in the case of TNR, DLC neocon mouthpieces).

[ginnyinWI]

13. it might have been Yglesias

His name is on the opening piece on the page, and nobody else's name appears after the other ones--just the signature, "TAP" at the end.

I know--I really like this mag otherwise. They have good, in-depth treatment of their topics.

[whometense]

9. web-only,

but if you want to feel better about TAP, read this: http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=11217

I love Charlie Pierce. :loveya:

[ginnyinWI]

14. thanks--that was indeed a good read! n/t

:)

[ProSense]

10. Wyden?

The guy who said the fight against terrorism is a war (and criticized Kerry for saying it needs a law enforcement component) only days before the UAE deal broke and refocused on money laundering as a major aspect? What an idiot!

[sandnsea]

16. Hey now

That's my Senator, be nice. :)

What did he say about terrorism, because I can't imagine why he'd be criticizing JK on it. My understanding is he's supported a more reasoned approach to fighting terrorism all along.

[MH1]

17. Here ya go

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=273&topic_id=72307&mesg_id=72307

My one comment, which I subsequently deleted, was pretty strongly worded.

[sandnsea]

21. "Tne New War"

I kind of think Kerry does think it's a war, it's just not a war to be fought with traditional military methods. I always had the impression he was trying to get people to start thinking about all the changes we need to make in order to maginalize global extremists, not just launching military attacks.

Having said that, I don't know why Wyden is making these Kerry snipes all of a sudden, unless it's because that's what the Oregon party expects him to do. I told everybody Oregon is DU LIVE.

[ProSense]

18. Sorry! I see the link is already posted (thanks MH1). n/t

[globalvillage]

19. And her hair is overprocessed.

Well, it is.

[JI7]

22. i dare any of these guys to put on jeans next to JK in jeans

and have people vote based on that.

[WildEyedLiberal]

23. Mmmm

I also think he should strip down to swim trunks and go to the beach, interns in tow. ;) Let the media capture some of that beefcake. I guarantee you he'd win the women's vote in an avalanche.

[JI7]

24. fuck yeah

he might as well. if they are going to start attacking him on stupid non issues like whoever looks the best in Jeans then he should take them up on it and play their game.

can anyone honestly say that Schweitzer looks better than Kerry in jeans here ?

[WildEyedLiberal]

25. Oh. My. God.

Be still my heart :loveya:

He pulls off jeans like NOBODY'S business. Sigh!

[ProSense]

26. OK, I'm

digging these, especially the corn field photo :loveya:

[WildEyedLiberal]

27. The corn field photo

Do you see what I see??

;) :o :evilgrin:

[JI7]

28. it's kind of hard to miss

[karynnj]

29. Bush's tumbling ratings is the root of all these snarky Kerry comments

Most news people have started to speak of all the deficits Bush really has. They had to have seen these flaws in 2004 - they were blatantly there. If anyone wrote in political satire that there was a Presidential candidate who needed a wire to give him answers in the debate, it would be considered that this person would be killed by the relevation. Bush had a reputation as a bully from the late 1980s, he gave nasty nicknames to people and he clearly had a mean streak.

Yet the media when beyond ignoring this, they projected an image 180 degrees off from reality. Simultaneously, they actively distorted Kerry's personality by loaded comparisons before people ever really got to know him. The who would stop if a motorist was stranded question shows how successful this was. You can come up with examples of Kerry coming to the aid of others - even saving the life of a Republican. Reading about Kerry, that is a repeated theme. (Even the story where he volunteered to act as an arbitor between nurses and the hospital administration in Boston - was a variation on this.)

Is there even one story of Bush ever taking one step out of his way to help anyone? Even one of his best friends, Karen Hughes knew this when she wrote the snarky comment "We had a hamster too. Let's just say our hamster didn't make it." that the Bush daughters delivered. Kerry's actions went beyond what he had to do - as Alexandra acknowledged, but the big message she (and his crew) sent was that they knew he was there for them. So, if people got the opposite message, where did it come from - the media.

So, now that everyone sees that Bush REALLY is the worst president ever, there is the obvious question of why was he elected. On Chris Matthews, Newsweek's Wolffe bluntly stated that it was because Kerry was a bad candidate. In reality, Kerry was right on every issue. Even the media credits him with doing an excellent job on the debates. Kerry made a few misstatements that the media allowed no corrections on - unlike the way they've ever treated anyone, but the mistatements did not distort his consistent overall message. He came very close to winning. Wolffe's and other media people's slams on Kerry now are just a reluctance on their part to assume their responsibility. Rather than accept that they favored Bush, because they feared lack of access or because their corporate owners preferred they do so, they fall back on Kerry's unlikability - even as there are all the surprised little stories that he is a friendly, warm, funny person.

[TayTay]

30. I think you are right Karen.

I don't think the Big Media has a terribly great image of Sen. Kerry because he isn't particularly solicitious of them and expects them to do their own thinking on things. Other people, like a certain Sen from AZ, hand-feed the Big Media press and treat them much better.

I thought this was why Kerry was doing all those interviews with the progressive media and the local radio shows and tv shows. I think he needs to do an end-run around Big Media because they are not particularly attentive to what he is actually saying. (Their script was pre-written.)

[ProSense]

31. Exactly! (edited to make sense)

The MSM and Republicans blasted Kerry for being wrong about everything he said in opposition to Bush, who they willingly supported---propped up to almost deity status---with full knowledge that he was an incompetent liar.


Now that Bush (whose likeness Tweety wanted carved on Mt. Rushmore) has been exposed as an incompetent liar, it's Kerry's fault.


Kerry was right about everything, including this: Bush is an idiot.