Rachel Maddow Is NOT Happy With Obama’s Kind Words For Former President Bush

[chimpymustgo]

Rachel Maddow Is NOT Happy With Obama’s Kind Words For Former President Bush

by Glenn Davis | 10:21 pm, August 31st, 2010


The backlash to President Obama’s Oval Office Iraq speech has begun – and so far, one of the toughest critics is Rachel Maddow. Maddow talked with Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann in the speech’s immediate aftermath, and reserved especially harsh judgment for Obama’s praise of former President George W. Bush.

Maddow shared this sentiment while the three like-minded pundits discussed a question from Olbermann about whether the speech was “too much in the middle.” Matthews responded first, by saying Obama is in the middle, which he called “a hard thing to do, to go to the center on a war.” Matthews did, however, say that “there very few arguments made for this war that were ever held out to be true, ever” – while noting his, Olbermann’s, and Maddow’s “pretty smart view on this war from the beginning.”

Olbermann then read aloud Obama’s complimentary words for Bush:

“This afternoon, I spoke to former President George W. Bush. It’s well known that he and I disagreed about the war from its outset. Yet no one could doubt President Bush’s support for our troops, or his love of country and commitment to our security.”

…to which Maddow said:”I think we shouldn’t get past how remarkable it is, how much the proponents of the Iraq war are getting off easy.” She went on to rip “the recklessness with which President Bush discarded…national security in favor of this war of choice, which only diminished our security, and then, the big finish:

“To talk about having a demonstrated commitment to our security, having started this war on the terms on which he started it – I mean, it’s beyond restraint from president Obama, and anyone in the pro-Iraq war, pro-Bush camp who doesn’t feel like they’ve been given the greatest political present they never deserved was not listening to this speech.”

-edit-

http://www.mediaite.com/online/rachel-maddow-criticizes-obamas-kind-words-for-bush/

[Skittles]

1. no thinking person could be happy with that

it's a fucking disgrace; totally unncessary and just another fucking stick in the eye

[chimpymustgo]

2. "Stick in the eye." I watched in disbelief, horror and sadness.

[Skittles]

8. the worst thing is - Obama did not believe what he was saying

it was very clear to me

[Stardust]

20. I'm still trying to figure out why he even bothered mentioning Bush.

Didn't he say he talked to him on the phone today? :eyes: Maybe he apologized to Bush for ending his precious war. Obama bending over backwards is getting very old.

[deaniac21]

29. Ending? You are FUNNY!

[glitch]

31. Especially when you consider how much the world knows about Bush crimes, they were listening too.

Bad enough for the domestic, I mean homeland, audience. Half of us are brainwashed anyway.
But for the world to hear it is surreal.
They must be asking: who do you think you're kidding?

[xchrom]

3. No 'shock and awe' here - he played it exactly as I thought he would.

If any charges are made against Bushco in court - it
Won't be in this country.

[glitch]

32. Now The Hague is obligated to take on Bush/Cheney.

Once it's determined a state can't or won't control its own rogues, The Hague has the mandate.

[KharmaTrain]

4. Declaring "Victory"...

History will be the ultimate judges. While I'd prefer a judge at the World Court to make a judgement (and lots of indictments), seems the US and the world (except for those whose lives were shattered) wants to "move on"...get away from this ugly war without totally getting away from it. This isn't a withdrawl...just a draw down and the questions as to why this conflagration happened in the first place has long since been muddled over by a complicit corporate media that profited from this war as well as politicians in both parties who have blood on their hands. It's sickening as by avoiding the real lessons of this "pre-emptive" invasion it opens the door for it to happen again in the future. Once the executive gets power, it rarely gives it back...and the unitary executive model has all but been codified...all we can do is hope for a benevolent executive not to play that card. The Congress has totally abrogated its power to declare war and we now have an imperialistic foreign policy that enables any "leader" to determine they can invade when it suits the "national interest" or "security". No need to prove it, their word is all that's needed.

Sadly we now have an executive who is assisting in the rewriting of history...another opportunity squandered.

[formercia]

6. Change the name to Caesar and be done with it.

The Romans learned that lesson the hard way. Why can't the legislative branch learn from History? The Executive surely has.

[KharmaTrain]

9. Empire = Riches

You keep the masses occupied with bread, circuses and "tea parties" and quietly go and count your cash. I don't think the Executive has learned a thing rather than the next time to pick a more "winnable" war. We see our entire government corrupted with corporate cash...especially from the large corporate welfare queens who turn billions of our tax dollars into thousands and millions in campaign contribution. Add to that a corporate media that thrives on the same money and has long demonized those who try to look under the hood as being "unpatriotic". For the thousands of families (many poor) whose lives have been shattered by this war for profit there are a bunch of very happy fat cats who will continue to get their billions in defense contracts and the beat goes on.

[lunatica]

34. Like your name states it's karma but of the bad kind and

will bite our asses at some point. And everyone who has enabled this to happen who could have done otherwise (like Nancy Pelosi) are complicit and accountable.

[Solly Mack]

5. "Yet no one could doubt...." Snort

[G_j]

16. LOL, that leaves out most everyone I know nt

[Solly Mack]

17. Just call me 'no one'

'Cause I not only doubt, I know better

[slay]

7. Me either

Rachel is one smart cookie - and she's right.

[ProfessionalLeftist]

10. Well she certainly isn't alone. n/t

[Stuart G]

11. K and R

[Octafish]

12. Obama should be prosecuting the little turd from Crawford.

Instead, he's acting as if lying America into two illegal, immoral and unnecessary wars is, uh, normal. W.T.F?

[chimpymustgo]

24. WTF??? I can't believe he mentioned B*sh with even faint praise.

[Octafish]

25. ''Now, it is time to turn the page.''

Sorry. I can't -- and I won't, not for government spying on Americans, torture, warmongering and treason.

[Orsino]

38. Well, we're not getting that trillion back.

That page is already turned, and we're still on the way to two trillion.

Even a world that could prosecute the war pigs wouldn't be able to put the various Humpties together again. Sadly, I understand that letting the perps walk is just a given on our planet.

[ladjf]

13. Of all of the countless sentences that have come out of the President's

mouth, this one about Bush was the worst. What in the living hell did he think he was accomplishing by complimenting the worst President in history, referring to a war criminal as supporting the troops that he had sent in harms way for his own gain.

[zipplewrath]

14. Wouldn't ya love to be the fly on the wall?

Maddow gets invited to the WH every once and a bit for one of these "off the record" chats. Wouldn't you love to have been the fly on the wall if she got invited after this speech? All this "turn the page" crap is just enabling the next senseless war.

[Billy Burnett]

15. No more "turning the corner", we are now turning the page ...

... tearing it out of the book and tossing it down the Memory Hole.

[lostnfound]

18. The pretense that it was about 'national security'. Yuck. nt

[Stardust]

19. Rachel was spot on with this comment (and then had to go and diminish it with

an apology to Keith later for "filibustering.") :eyes:

[truebrit71]

21. She was spot on the money...

..

[Bluenorthwest]

22. Obama hit a new all time low, and that is not easy for him

He praises Bush, demands that no one doubt the motives of Cheney.

[Javaman]

23. the changing of the history books as begun.

revisionism just doesn't happen by people who lie, it also happens by people who don't challenge.

No prosecutions means no record of accountability. No accountability means no long term repercussions. No long term repercussions means no entry into the historical record. No entry into the historical record means nothing happened. years from now, when we are dead, moron will be looked upon as a hero because what needed to be done, wasn't.

[JHB]

26. And to no one's surprise, the war proponents are still griping...

John McCain: "a real lack of generosity of spirit."

John Cornyn: Our success in Iraq has everything to do with the hard work of our men and women in uniform, the Iraqi people, and President Bush's resolve. It has nothing to do with President Obama's campaign promise to carry out the previous administration's plan for returning US troops from Iraq."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9055528


You know what happens when you offer an olive branch to an elephant? He takes it, eats it, and expects more. Usually while crapping on you.

[chimpymustgo]

28. You hit the nail on the head.

[Poboy]

27. K&R!

[slipslidingaway]

30. knr - WH comment line - [phone]...

email link

http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact

[Cetacea]

33. Do repub presidents ever praise democratic presidents?

Aside from JFK? Didn't think so.

[lunatica]

35. This country is not becoming corrupt. It's long past that.

Our government is morally corrupt and the teabaggers want to solidify it as long as it looks like the pre-civil rights days when no black man could dream of being President.

[Name removed]

36. Deleted message

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

[Cal33]

37. Maddow is only in her mid-30s. She is a brilliant journalist.

She will get far.